MELKSHAM Town Council has been criticised for its failure to continue making its meetings accessible to the public online. However, with £20,000 already paid on a failed system, and the possibility of legal action with the supplier, the town council is considering paying more money for working equipment.
Since its installation at the Town Hall in August, audio-visual equipment costing £20,000 – which would have allowed the public to watch and participate in meetings online – has failed to work successfully.
Now the council could be set to spend more money on the system. Documents shared with Melksham News reveal that the council is considering spending between £9,500 to £27,00 to ‘make good’ their new audio-visual set-up.
It was hoped that the new system installed in the summer would help build on the public interest generated during the Covid-19 lockdowns when meetings were held online via Zoom.
However, residents wanting to continue participating from home have been left out in the cold.
“As someone who works until late, I would like to put questions to the council but cannot face going out again in the evening,” said one local resident.
“Whilst Covid 19 has been a real issue and continues to be, I do feel that one of the things that has come out of it has been the way that companies/organisations have had to look at the way in which they operate.
“One of these benefits was more involvement from the public in participating and observing town council meetings. I wonder how many people actually attend now?”
In response to questions from Melksham News, the town council’s clerk, Linda Roberts, said, “Since the installation of the AV system, Melksham Town Council has been unable to run the system without experiencing issues in the transmission of live meetings.
“We are working hard to find an amicable solution to these problems with the contractor. To date, Melksham Town Council has paid 50% of the installation costs.”
Melksham News has learnt that the council is now considering spending more money to ‘make good’ the system.
According to documents shared with the newspaper, the town council has received three quotes from contractors ranging in price from just under £9,500 up to £27,000.
In a session closed to the public and press at a town council meeting last month, councillors discussed their next steps regarding the audio-visual equipment.
Minutes from the meeting say that it was resolved “to instruct the town clerk to obtain legal advice from the town council’s solicitors and to arrange a panel to interview two of the companies before making a recommendation to a future meeting of full council for a decision.”
