Fed up with business at Argyll and Bute Council being conducted in a way he describes a: ‘… so wasteful, costly, and environmentally damaging that it cannot be described as 21st Century’, SNP Councillor John Semple is calling for the council to smarten up its technical communications.
He has just witnessed the abandonment of a Local Community Planning meeting because of faulty video conferencing (VC) equipment which excluded participants from Islay, Jura, Colonsay and – ironically – Lochgilphead, the town which is the seat of the council.
John Semple says: ‘In the past I have described Argyll & Bute Council as being ‘prehistoric’, which may have been tongue-in-cheek. However, the way council business is conducted and organised is so wasteful, costly, and environmentally damaging that it cannot be described as 21st Century.
‘It also excludes the opportunity for public participation.People should not be denied access to council meetings by virtue of geography or poor facilities.
‘As chair of the Environmental Policy and Performance Group in 2008, I led a successful pilot in conducting meetings of the group via Video Conferencing. This saved travel time and expenses for two councillors on Mull which would have amounted to about £200 and 8 hours travel for a 2 hour meeting.
‘At the time, assurances were given by senior management that serious attempts would be made to increase and improve the use of VC equipment for council business.
‘Since then we have seen sharp reductions in our budgets for delivering services and steep increases in the cost of travel yet, next month, the MAKI (Mid Argyll, Kintyre and Islay) area committee will travel lock-stock-and-barrel to Islay; 8 members, 5-6 officers and 4 cars, that is equivalent of 3 weeks working time and I would suggest £1000 plus in expenses and fares.
‘I have written to Ellen Morton, Acting Leader of the council, calling upon her to make VC the primary means of communication over and above direct face–to-face meetings and to significantly expand and upgrade the councils VC equipment in the MAKI area as a matter of top priority.
‘This could be funded by projected savings in travel expenses and increased efficiency in workload of councillors and officers. I predict that a 50% saving in travel costs alone could be achieved which could amount to over £100,000 per year in the MAKI area alone.
‘The saving could be used to establish a state-of-the-art VC system which would significantly improve the efficiency of the council and reduce its carbon footprint.
‘The council must also grasp the nettle and stop hiding behind geography as an excuse for excluding its business from the vast majority of its electorate.
‘There is no reason why meetings cannot be streamed live from the councils website.’
And in this, as in every part of his analysis here, Cuncillor Semple is quite right.
Argyll and Bute Council – and the satellites its services – benefit from superfast broadband connetions in a publicly funded system know as Pathfinder North. Streaming video from Kilmory of council meetings in progress is, as Councillor Semple says, not a problem.
To justify the additional public funding of the Pathfinder North system, it was promised that the system would be opened up to the private sector business and domestic markets.
This has not happened. We are not losing sight of it and will keep reporting on the state of play until it is delivered. The responsible suppliers are Cable and Wireless (who got the Pathfinder North delivery contract) and their commercial arm, Thus who are supposed to be delivering the private sector access packages.
I couldn’t agree more with Councillor Semple on this issue .
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This means there are at least two councillors (to my knowledge) who inhabit the 21st Century…..
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If only the ones with the brains were in charge…
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Yes to more VC where appropriate but save even more money -Abolish the ornmaments of committees that may tick boxes or be part of the Chief Executive’s endless structural tinkering but are toothless and have little productive output such as PPGs and Local Area Community Planning Groups (which also take folk with real jobs away from the front line). Give real powers to effective scrutiny committees – that may prevent further damage to the council’s reputation.
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I have used VC on many occasions but believe that there is scope to extend that much further. It is also essential that Council meetings are available live on the internet. The problem is that it appears that there are a number of councillors who do not want their constituents or the public to see how they perform (or how they do not perform) at Council meetings.
I agree with James that serious consideration must be given to scrapping PPGs and Local Area Community Planning Groups. Many folk are asking if they have any real value.
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Please change the font – difficult to read and not very nice when in bold.
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There is one male councillor in the Kintyre and the Islands ward who cannot use the computer and does not appear to be able to use the telephone. I am still waiting for a reply by phone from him and I have been waiting almost four years. According to the Argyll & Bute Council website he only corresponds with his constituents by letter.
Therefore there is not much chance of this councillor being in favour of Video Conferencing.
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If Local Area Community Planning Groups don’t work because people aren’t committed to making them work and prepared to genuinely work together. We have to have them I believe, or something very similar.
They are also only young infants that need brought on towards adulthood. There will be the teenage years but we don’t go aroung culling our teens because of their hormones and spots. We see the good in them. Some of the structures are a bit tortuous but I think it is down to people.
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Echoing James Robb – font still not very nice and bold is even harder to read! The old site was very clear if that’s any help!
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It all ties in with a major re-organisation of Argyll & Bute Council’s procedures, its policies (or lack of), executives and transparent conduct of its affairs being necessary. However, those currently in power will not desire to have their shenanigan’s shown to the public at large, nor how they vote on key issues.
It all comes back to accountability – too many don’t want to be accountable for what they do. They just want to take the money and run.
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Look how long the Westminster Parliament resisted TV coverage and once it was introduced how soon people were able to see which MPs took their responsibilities seriously. Of course ABC will resist it as long as they have the choice. What needs to happen is for Holyrood to make it a legal requirement for all Councils to do this.
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I agree about the benefits of using VC. Today I chaired a 40 minute meeting from Dunoon which saved at least two of us a 3 hour round trip and all of us from any travel whatsoever. Aside from the saving in staff time there was a saving in expenses and on carbon emissions not to mention wear and tear on the roads and the safety element.
I also agree that the new font on here is very poor, please change it soon.
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