As elected Councillors representing our Wards, it is our job – it’s actually so much more than our job, it’s our moral obligation and our duty to keep our community informed and engaged on what we do.
There are a large number of channels we use to stay in touch with our constituents such as various forms of messaging, emails, meetings, surgeries and even picking up the phone.
But what about council meetings?
At the moment decisions that affect many in our community are being made behind closed doors. Having said that, council meetings are open to the public, and we would always encourage our constituents to come along and see these meetings in action; but in our limited experience turn out is often very low. Many people do not have time to attend a council meeting for a number of valid reasons.
In this day and age, we need to cast our net far and wide and look at all the tools available to make what we do as Councillors accessible and to encourage the community to be involved. This is it what makes our Borough tick.
“Live Streaming” is one of these tools we would like to see used at all of the London Borough of Bromley’s Council Meetings.
Having access to the meetings from smartphones and tablets gives constituents the ability to tune into the live streams while they’re going about their day-to-day lives. Even listening in while they are doing other things will give them a sense of what is going on in the community.
If Live Streaming was made possible, you could tune in from anywhere and listen live or have the ability to play at a later date. It’s convenient and easy! The main purpose of streaming council meetings is to bring discussions out into the open and into the public eye. It also encourages involvement, engagement and is a tool to making the councillor you elected more accountable. It’s also about being transparent in everything we do and builds trust with the electorate.
The people of Bromley are entitled to see this process in action and how these decisions are made.
It helps generate a discussion and people are likely to use other social media platforms to comment and share their opinions thus creating further awareness – especially with the growth of online community groups and forums. That’s got to be a good thing surely.
Cllr Mike Jack
Cllr Mark Smith
Cllr Alison Stammers
