In a victory for
transparency, the Government has announced that from today members of the public
and journalists will be able to film and report on all public meetings held by
local councils in England.
The Openness of Local Government Regulations
2014, signed into law by the
Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Secretary Eric Pickles, will allow
citizens to use 21st Century techniques such as tweeting and
blogging to report on council meetings. It will also allow them to view material
relating to some decisions made elsewhere by officers acting under a “general
or specific delegated power”. The move to update the law follows attempts by DCLG to use non-legislative methods,
including the publication of guidance which explicitly confirmed that members of
the public could overtly film council meetings. Sadly some councils chose to
ignore this step.
