Webcasting ought to be a straightforward decision; Osborne has made it otherwise

I have a confession: in my near three years as the Labour Parliamentary candidate for Castle Point I only attended a couple of council meetings there, and watched about ten minutes at most on webcast. Perhaps this explains my distant third place in 2010. Perhaps not. One has to make decisions about the best use of resources, and my time was one of the more precious.

I mention this because the suggested webcasting of Southend-on-Sea’s council meetings is a hot topic at the moment. It ought to be uncontentious, but the deep cuts to the council’s budget have made this a fraught decision.

Firstly, I think the idea of webcasting is a good one. My well-publicised objection is over the timing.

Ms Jack Monroe and Cllr James Courtenay, to name but two protagonists, are very much in the pro camp.

Money is the issue, and irrespective of the relatively small sum involved it will have to come from somewhere.

I suspect that the broadcasting of our meetings will have a very low audience except on those rare moments of real excitement. Only the obsessed will want to witness the somewhat turgid nature of our meetings.

To get a glimpse of what could be in store you could try the Castle Point Webcasting site.