TO increase community viewing of Coffs Harbour City Council meetings, live streams of recent meetings will be made available the day after a meeting via a direct link on Council’s website homepage.

Cr Paul Amos called on Council to initiate this action at Council’s ordinary meeting on Thursday 13 May to ensure community members are able to listen to Council debate before commenting on an issue over social media.

“The participation rate with the general public is very, very low in listening to what happens in Council meetings, and even checking information before they jump on to social media,” Cr Amos said.

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“We’ve got the traditional media out there wanting to report on Council meetings and I’m finding it hard to navigate through to listen.

“I’m thinking if we have on our home page a button that can be pushed and it would make it so easier and our communications with our public will be so much more accurate if people know they can easily go back, listen to what was said, before they take a position on a topic.”

Currently online recordings of Council meetings are found under the ‘Minutes and Agendas’ section of the Council website and are available on a Friday, the day after the Council meeting.

“It’s about communications with our community, about involving them,” Cr Amos said.

“The current recordings of Council meetings are not easy to navigate to via the Coffs Harbour Council homepage.

“There has been low interest in listening to the council meeting recordings.”

Around 22 people watched Council’s latest live streamed ordinary meeting on Thursday 13 May.

Councillors unanimously resolved to publish the live stream content from the most recent meeting no later than 12 noon on the Friday following the scheduled Thursday Council meeting.

This is to be presented with a direct and prominent link on the Coffs City Council home page.

By Emma DARBIN