The Democratic Services Manager presented a report which updated the committee on the arrangements for the webcasting of Council, Cabinet and Committee meetings and provided views on which meetings should be webcast.

The Democratic Services Manager outlined the webcasting statistics for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20 which showed the Live Views, On Demand Views and Total Views of each meeting that was webcast. The tables for the respective years were listed below:

Webcasting of meetings 2018/19

Webcasting of meetings 2019/20

The Democratic Services Manager explained that various forward work plans and committee work programmes had been reviewed with the view to establish what meetings were proposed to be webcast over the next three months. He added that in developing proposals, consideration was given to items that were considered of significant interest to the public. The following meetings were proposed to be webcast:

• Combined Meeting of Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 1 and 2 – 19

March 2020 (Learner Travel and Post 16 Education)

• Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 3 – 23 March 2020 (Working Towards

Plastic Free Bridgend)

• Development Control Committee – 9 April 2020
• Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 3 – 27 April 2020 (Waste

Management / Waste and Recycling Centres)

A Member explained that there was a predicament at the last meeting of Council whereby a Skype presentation from an invitee was scheduled. He explained that the Council Chamber was unusable for this arrangement and the meeting had to be moved to the Committee Rooms which caused delays and confusion. He asked that consideration be given to developing a system whereby remote attendance by invitees and Councillors was made possible. He added that in light of new government legislation this should be a priority.

A Member agreed with the above comments and stated that Welsh Government needed to be contributing towards the funding of this as Local Authorities all over Wales would struggle with the costs associated with this.

RESOLVED: That the Democratic Services Committee:

• Noted the update on arrangements for webcasting of Council, Cabinet and Committee meetings as detailed in section 4 of the report
• Commented on the list of meetings that were proposed to be webcast as detailed in section 4.4.4 of the report and provided its views on what future meetings should be webcast.