Are Wirral Council councillors trying to restrict the filming of public meetings again?

Are Wirral Council councillors trying to restrict the filming of public meetings again?

Cllr Steve Foulkes (middle) answers a question about the Merseyrail strike (L to R Cllr Chris Meaden, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Moira McLaughlin and Cllr Ann McLachlan) Birkenhead Constituency Committee 30th March 2017

Are Wirral Council councillors trying to restrict the filming of public meetings again?

                                 

(L to R Cllr Chris Meaden, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Moira McLaughlin and Cllr Ann McLachlan) 30th March 2017 Cllr Moira McLaughlin is Chair of the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee
(L to R Cllr Chris Meaden, Cllr Steve Foulkes, Cllr Moira McLaughlin and Cllr Ann McLachlan) 30th March 2017 Cllr Moira McLaughlin is the Chair of the Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee

I’ll declare at the outset that I regularly film public meetings of Wirral Council.

Wirral Council’s Standards and Constitutional Oversight Committee next meets on the 27th February 2018 starting at 4.00 pm in Committee Room 3 at Wallasey Town Hall.

Item 5 on the agenda is a proposed revised “Protocol for the Filming of public meetings”. Although most of the changes relate to Wirral Council filming meetings public itself, there are changes proposed to policy that are in relation to others filming public meetings at Wirral Council.

The planned changes involve each time Wirral Council films the meeting that the Chair states at the start, “I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live to the internet and will be capable of repeated viewing.”, as well as signs up inside and outside the meeting room for the public meeting stating,

WEBCASTING NOTICE

Please note: this meeting may be filmed for live or subsequent broadcast via the internet – at the start of the meeting the Civic Mayor / Chair will confirm if all or part of the meeting is being filmed. You should be aware that the Council is a Data Controller under the Data Protection Act. Data collected during this webcast will be retained in accordance with the Council’s published policy. Public seating areas will not be filmed by the council. Contact Officer: Civic and Committee Services Manager – 0151 6918559”

The changes proposed to be added to the public filming the meeting include, “A designated area shall be set aside for members of the press/public who wish to film or secure a sound recording of the Council’s public meetings. Any disruptive behaviour or distractions will result in the person(s) being asked to leave the meeting.

So does this mean I can’t clap, smile, frown, sneeze, cough, change batteries, zoom or pan as this may be deemed a “distraction” and I’ll be possibly asked to leave before I even had time to turn off the camera? And if I answer no thank you, would that be used as further evidence of a distraction and then I’d be forced to leave?

If one person filming a meeting is classed as distracting, then councillors and officers need to learn to concentrate better without getting distracted by distractions!

As if to prove my point, here is their sample text for agendas!

Audio/Visual Recording of meetings – sample text for Agenda Front Sheet

Everyone is welcome to record meetings of the Council and its Committees using whatever, non-disruptive, methods you think are suitable. If you have any questions about this please contact Democratic Services (members of the press please contact the Press Office). Please note that the Chair of the meeting has the discretion to halt any recording for a number of reasons including disruption caused by the filming or the nature of the business being conducted. Persons making recordings are requested not to put undue restrictions on the material produced so that it can be reused and edited by all local people and organisations on a non-commercial basis.“

Wirral Council hasn’t consulted with myself on the proposed changes to its filming policy. The Chair can stop Wirral Council filming if he or she wishes, but if the meeting is open to the public they have no legal powers to stop filming and would just rely on goodwill!

If you ’d like to express your views on this proposed policy before the Standards and Constitutional Committee meets on the 27th February 2018, email contact details for the 9 councillors who are on it are below.

Cllr Moira McLaughlin (Chair) moiramclaughlin@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Paul Stuart (Vice-Chair) paulstuart@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Ron Abbey ronabbey@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Bill Davies billdavies@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Brian Kenny briankenny@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Chris Blakeley (Conservative spokesperson) chrisblakeley@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Gerry Ellis gerryellis@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr John Hale johnhale@wirral.gov.uk
Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat spokesperson) philgilchrist@wirral.gov.uk



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Author: John Brace

New media journalist from Birkenhead, England who writes about Wirral Council. Published and promoted by John Brace, 134 Boundary Road, Bidston, CH43 7PH. Printed by UK Webhosting Ltd t/a Tsohost, 113-114 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, Berkshire, England, SL1 4PF.

2 thoughts on “Are Wirral Council councillors trying to restrict the filming of public meetings again?”

  1. They need to get on with the job they are paid to do and stop wasting taxpayers money on more dumb idears to stop us the public what their up to!

    1. Thanks for your comment.

      The irony of it is there are many public meetings I can’t film anyway for one reason or another.

      Such as two different public meetings held at the same time in different places.

      I can only manage to upload for publishing a maximum of around 4 hours of video from public meetings each day due to the upload speed of the internet connection here.

      Take last week as an example, we only filmed 2 out of a total of 4 public meetings at Wirral Council.

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