MELKSHAM Town Council has again apologised for the ongoing technical difficulties that have plagued recent town council meetings.
New audio-visual equipment, to the cost of £20,000, was recently installed at the Town Hall to enable the council to live-stream meetings online, allowing the public to watch meetings and participate from home.
However, since its installation, the council has struggled to manage the new system – and matters came to a head at a meeting last week, which attracted strong public interest because of two issues to be discussed – the future of the Assembly Hall and the council’s response to the A350 bypass consultation.
Residents attending the meeting online were unable to hear what was being said at the meeting and could not participate.
Melksham’s mayor, cllr Jon Hubbard, has now apologised and said that the town council will be “addressing these shortcomings and taking the necessary action to bring this matter to a close”.
“I would like to apologise on behalf of the town council for the ongoing issues that there have been with the new audio-visual system that the council has installed to allow for the remote participation of members of the public,” said cllr Hubbard on behalf of the town council.
“The council commissioned this equipment in good faith, but the protracted on-going issues with getting the system functioning are frankly unacceptable and I feel that we must turn to the people we serve, and the people who have been let down by this new system and say sorry.
“I am particularly sorry for those people who were attending the meeting held on Monday (9th August) via Zoom who wanted to contribute to the town council’s submission into the proposed bypass consultation. The failure of the technology robbed you of your opportunity to submit your comments to our debate and I can only say how sorry I and all the councillors and officers are that this happened.
“We have received repeated assurances and promises from our supplier, but these have not led to a working system, and we will be addressing these shortcomings and taking the necessary action to bring this matter to a close. This will likely lead to a short delay before we can attempt to use the system again, but we will do so at the earliest opportunity.
“Melksham Town Council is committed to being as open, accessible, and transparent as possible and in March made a significant financial commitment to help achieve this. It is extremely regrettable that five months on, we are not seeing the proceeds of this investment in our AV system and I hope that we will soon be able to see the true benefits the system will bring.”
