'We are sorry... but we can't offer a guarantee': Shropshire Council comments on live stream hiccup during packed planning meeting

Five proposals were considered by the council's northern planning committee last Tuesday (December 9). They included housing developments in Bayston Hill, Whitchurch and Hadnall, a battery energy storage system scheme in Uffington, and a proposal for a house of multiple occupancy (HMO) in Oswestry.

However, not long into speeches regarding the Bayston Hill proposal for 108 houses, the live stream failed – meaning that people watching online were unable to follow proceedings. The meeting was paused so that technicans could try and get it working again, but they were unable to.

It was decided that the meeting would continue, with the rest of the proceedings to be recorded. It means that anyone who was not present in person will not be able to know what was said when the stream failed.

Caroline Dodd, who was interested in the Bayston Hill proposal, was among those trying to watch online.

“Just prior to when [Bayston Hill] Councillor [Rob] Ruscoe started speaking, whilst there was still audio, the picture was stuck on a slide of a plan that had already been shown", she said.

“Partway through [Shropshire] Councillor Teri Trickett’s address, the live stream failed altogether.”

Miss Dodd added that her sister, Dr Marion Latimer, who was also watching online from a different device at a different location, telephoned the council’s legal and democratic services department. She was informed staff were aware of the situation, and IT technicians were on their way.

“When the live stream eventually resumed, there was still no picture, other than the plan previously displayed and Councillor Ebbs was asking a question, rather than Councillor Trickett resuming her presentation", said Miss Dodd.

“A ‘chunk’ of the meeting was entirely lost to those expecting to view the live stream and then there was only audio for what was left of that portion of the meeting relating to the Land West Lyth Hill application. This was a wholly unsatisfactory situation, denying transparency to what is supposed to be a democratic process.”

A Shropshire Council spokesperson said: “The meeting commenced as planned at 2pm at which time the live stream was functional.

“As soon as it became known that the live stream had frozen, the meeting was paused in order to resolve the issue. Around 10 minutes had passed by the time the error became known and that part of the meeting is unfortunately not available to view.

“After a period of around 20 minutes, due to the large number of people at the meeting, a decision was taken to recommence the meeting and to record the proceedings while work continued to restore the live stream which was again functioning in a short period of time.

“Both parts of the live stream are available to view on the council’s YouTube channel and the additional recording of the meeting (from the point that the meeting restarted) is also available.

“We are sorry that a short part of the meeting was not live streamed and that a small amount of the discussion is not available to review.

“Work is continuing to establish the cause of the fault so we can try to prevent it occurring in the future. However, while we do currently stream all public meetings, we are not able to offer a guarantee that technical faults will not interfere with our ability to do this.”

This is not the first time the council’s live stream has failed. At a cabinet meeting the week before, a break had to be taken when the the stream’s audio failed. It resumed during a member’s question, meaning that what was heard beforehand is not available to hear.

The next meeting is on Tuesday (December 16) when the Southern Planning Committee will consider a highly controversial proposal for 800 homes in Albrighton. The scheme – which has been recommended for refusal – also includes an 80-bed care home, a secondary school, and local centre.