Call for 'more transparency' at Bristol City Council meetings

The recent switch to a committee system was meant to bring in a new era of transparency to City Hall

Members of the public cannot watch some Bristol City Council meetings online despite the switch to a committee model. Supporters of the model said it would be more transparent than the mayoral system, but so far most key decisions on spending public money are not webcasted.

In May this year, the council switched how it’s governed, ditching a directly elected mayor in favour of eight policy committees made up of cross-party councillors. That followed a referendum in 2022, after campaigners said too much power was concentrated in the mayor.

But under the mayoral model, all key decisions — spending over £500,000 or affecting residents in at least two wards of Bristol — were filmed and the videos published online. Councillors on the environment policy committee on September 26 asked why this no longer happens.

Labour Councillor Kye Dudd, a former cabinet member, said: “For seven years I was in the cabinet and every decision we made was filmed and recorded for the public. None of the policy committees are being filmed, apart from only one.

“The idea [of the committee system] was that it would be more transparent than the mayoral system. Now we come to these policy committees and thankfully they’re being filmed by a member of the public, but that’s not acceptable really. It needs to be done officially. I think that needs to be put right pretty quickly.”

Some policy committee meetings have been filmed by Dan Ackroyd, a democracy activist, but the council has only been officially filming meetings of the strategy and resources policy committee. Some meetings are held at 2pm, when many people are at work, while others are held in the evening and go on until 8pm, when many people have childcare duties.

Filming meetings makes them more accessible, as members of the public can then watch them whenever they like. But according to one council officer, a “resourcing issue” is the main obstacle. The cameras require a member of staff to operate them during a meeting, and a “review is planned” in the future.

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Cllr Dudd added: “I thought it was a technical issue, but someone made that decision that there are other more important things to do. I think that’s wrong and the people who campaigned for the committee system should be up in arms — and some of them are in the administration now.”

Public council meetings in other areas, such as Bath and South Gloucestershire, are filmed and published online. Meanwhile in Bristol, the lack of webcasting has affected several controversial decisions including on raising allotment rents and doubling the cost of resident parking permits.

Green Cllr Martin Fodor, chair of the environment committee, said: “I totally agree, I would like this to be webcast. The facilities are in the room, but it hasn’t been provided for most of the policy committees, other than strategy and resources. I’m disappointed with that.

“I’d like there to have been a record of our last meeting, not just the minutes but the actual recording. It should be webcast and it should then be available. We need to find out when that will take place. I believe it’s meant to happen, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet.”