Extension of Council Meetings Webcasting

3rd March 2011

The Highland Council's pilot webcasting scheme is to be extended so that council and strategic committee meetings held at Council headquarters in Inverness can be viewed by the public from their computers.

At present, the Council webcasts meetings held in the Council Chamber of the Planning Environmental and Development Committee as well as the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Planning Applications Committee and the Highland Licensing Committee. Meetings of the Northern Joint Police Board, which are held at Council HQ, are also webcast.

From March, the following committees will now be webcast as a matter of course - Housing and Social Work Committee (9 March), Education Culture and Sport Committee (10 March) and the Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee (17 March).

From April, the Resources Committee, Audit and Standards Committee, Gaelic Committee and the Highland Council meetings will also be webcast.

As well as broadcasting meetings live on the Council's web site: www.highland.gov.uk, the Council will make available on the web a recording of meetings.

Councillor Sandy Park, Convener of The Highland Council, said: "Having all our meetings webcast will allow many more people to follow how we do business and provide an easy and convenient way of watching and listening to debates and seeing how decisions are made. Anything that opens up how we operate and makes decision making more accessible and transparent is to be welcomed."