TEIGNMOUTH Town Council has launched a live streaming programme, allowing its meetings to be watched as they happen on You Tube following a petition calling for the council’s proceedings to be broadcast.

The first session before a camera took place on Tuesday November 11 when the full council met at Bitton House.

The live streaming comes after a campaign by Teignmouth resident Eddy Winsborrow who has been calling for the meetings to be live streamed.

After the decision, he said it was a ‘huge win for there people of Teignmouth and the town council’.

Edd, who is a professional streamer and broadcaster, said: ‘I attended the town council meeting to officially present the petition for live-streaming and public archiving of meetings.

‘To my surprise when I arrived everything was set up ready for livestream and we were told that this meeting will be the first trial of live-streaming.

‘I am grateful to the council for giving me the five minutes to speak.

‘I urged council members to make an amendment to the new live-streaming policy that was on the agenda, the policy stated that recording will be available to the public for three months, then deleted and stored securely.

‘I believed a length of 12 months would be more in the public interest and more in line with other local councils that stream their meetings.’

Addressing the council before the start of formal proceedings, Edd said: ‘It’s good to see it’s already happening.’

Mayor Cllr Cate Williams thanked Mr Winsborrow for organising the petition saying: ‘It’s always good when members of the community take an active role.

‘We should be transparent, we should be open.’

Cllr Williams told the meeting that, technically, Mr Winsborrow’s petition failed to accord with Town Council’s current policy as not only did it incorporate names from outside of the Teignmouth area, which could not be included in the number count, it failed to include the required full names, addresses and signatures.

She conceded, however, that his actions had been useful by giving the council ‘a poke to get things rolling’ and as the streaming exercise was already a ‘live’ project then it should be addressed at the meeting.

Cllr Mike Jackman was also appreciative of Mr Winsborrow’s efforts, offering his formal thanks via the meeting, a gesture which earned Mr Winsborrow a round of applause.

The council later agreed to amend its new live streaming policy by extending the time recordings would be kept from a suggested three months to a maximum of 12 months, having heard that similar arrangements were in place at Teignbridge District Council and Devon County Council.

Cllr Mike Jackman said: ‘It would be good for the public to have access to see what was said.’

After the trial stream, Edd was congratulated on social media however comments were made that the quality of the recording was poor.

He started the petition as he believes many people are ‘disenfranchised' with local democracy because they perceive it as being conducted behind closed doors’.

Opening up meetings to people who may not physically be able to attend due to disabilities, work commitments or childcare responsibilities, will, Edd hopes, make town council decisions seem less mysterious to the community it serves.