Enclosure 7
Webcasting Survey Report to Corporate Management Team
Date of CMT Meeting / 29 August 2013Reporting Officer / Paul Funnell
Will you attend the CMT meeting to present this report? / Yes
Name of Director who has approved this report / John Cook
Purpose of Report / Information and discussion item on webcasting
Will the report need an Authority, PAROW or Audit and Scrutiny Committee decision? / Will be part of evidence used by Mel Doel and Carys Howells when they bring recommendations from CGTFG
If so, please confirm which committee and date of meeting, and log the item on the Agenda Builder / TBC
List any enclosures / none
Recommendation(s) / a) Information/discussion item
Overview
The survey ran from 10 July and results were collated on 19 Aug. The survey has been left online in order gather further evidence.
There were a total for 51 responses which were categorised as anonymous (3), external (11), member (7) and officer (30) for analysis purposes.
Usefulness
Overall 82% of respondents felt the service was useful or very useful, with the figure for members and external respondents being higher at 89%. This latter figure is the measure that was identified for Improvement Objective 4 “Public confidence in, and accessibility to, the Authority’s conduct of business and governance will be improved” in the Improvement Plan for 2012-13.
The chart below shows the details for usefulness by respondent group.
Viewing by meeting type
Of the 51 respondents more had watched archive than live and NPA was the most popular meeting; results closely paralleled the overall webcasting stats. The details are given in this table:
RESP / Live / % / Arch / % / NPA / % / PAROW / % / ASC / % / Other / %ANON / 3 / 3 / 100% / 3 / 100% / 1 / 33% / 2 / 67% / 2 / 67% / 0 / 0%
EXT / 11 / 5 / 45% / 8 / 73% / 6 / 55% / 8 / 73% / 4 / 36% / 1 / 9%
MEM / 7 / 3 / 43% / 6 / 86% / 6 / 86% / 5 / 71% / 2 / 29% / 1 / 14%
OFF / 30 / 22 / 73% / 18 / 60% / 21 / 70% / 15 / 50% / 18 / 60% / 10 / 33%
TOTAL / 51 / 33 / 65% / 35 / 69% / 34 / 67% / 30 / 59% / 26 / 51% / 12 / 24%
Looking to the future
The question on whether we should continue with webcasting showed strong support from all groups other than the 3 anonymous respondents. There was some interest in the potential for social media in the future:
Comments
1. Neutral/mixed comments
1.1. Anonymous
1.1.1. “It is useful as a record for my work, if the webcasting was not taking place i would be in the meeting and therefore not require the record. Has officer time to operate the system been included in the resource calculations?”
1.2. External
1.2.1. “Find it extremely useful - due to my poor broadband speed have experience difficulty with sound and navigating to specifc positions. Have you considered providing transcipts? Would like to see the service continued.” – Vale of Grwyney
1.2.2. “Bear in mind Abergavenny is outside the Park boundary and I am a technophobe!” - Abergavenny Town Council
2. Negative comments
2.1. Anonymous
2.1.1. “Waste of tax payers money”
2.1.2. “Downside of web casting is loss of candour.”
2.2. Officers
2.2.1. "Have viewed only because I cover minute-taking and needed practice. If I wanted to see a meeting I would go into the committee room. What would/ could the money that is currently being spent on webcasting be spent on otherwise?"
3. Positive comments
3.1. External
3.1.1. “Webcast is very useful for those wishing to know the facts but are unable to attend a meeting in person on the day. Thanks” – Llangors Community Council
3.1.2. “This is one of the better decisions the NPA have done in relation to communications. I hope the NPA will continue with webcasting” – Llangattock Community Council
3.1.3. “Definitely a step forwards. Extremely informative far or so than relying on very scant minute taking methods. it fills the gaps” – Talgarth Town Council
3.1.4. “The webcast is excellent.” – No organisation name
3.1.5. “I feel webcasting is very useful to members of the public who can not attend meetings and can view them at their leisure. I feel it would be detrimental not to continue to provide this invaluable service which gives the National Park a great deal of transparency.” – No organisation name
3.2. Members
3.2.1. “i believe it helps members who cannot always attend meeting to catch up. I watched 6 hours of the EGM” – Mr Ian Rowat
3.2.2. “The live meetings are an excellent way for people to follow decisions being made by the park from the comfort of their homes, increasing openness and transparency . It's also very useful to follow what happens on committees I don't sit on - such as Audit and scrutiny .The archives are extremely useful for me as a member to look back and check out decisions that have been made and also to catch up on meetings that I have been unable to attend.” – Mrs Melanie Doel
3.2.3. “essential that this level of transparency continues. Other public organisations should follow this path” – Mr Edward Evans
3.2.4. “I am a member and whilst I am present at the meeting I have not to date viewed a web casted meeting.The principle of openess and transparency is important and the public need the assurance that any public body work well and under scrutiny.” – Cllr Andrew James
3.3. Officers
3.3.1. “A good thing to do if we can afford it.”
3.3.2. “I believe this is the way forward and it is good BBNPA is leading this way with this technology. In addition, I also find webcasting to be valuable to both Members and BBNPA either accessing live or seeing archived webcasting. Hope we find the funding to continue.”
3.3.3. “I've never viewed any meetings - but if I was planning on building a house in my back garden I may be interested in viewing them. That aside, surely the numbers viewing these meetings speaks for itself and they should continue ( as long as its the general public viewing them and not just staff)”
3.3.4. “It's a good facility which enables us to show the public that the Park is being open and transparent.”
3.3.5. “Not something I would use but serves a function for the general public and aids our transparency”
3.3.6. “To not continue webcasting would be a step backwards for the authority and a blow for open and transparent governance.”
3.3.7. “From a PR & Comms point of view, the webcasts are a useful resource because they enable us to keep up to date with meetings from our desks. The webcasts also allow us to access archive footage to answer media enquiries.”
3.3.8. “One of the best things the Authority could have done in terms of helping the public to understand what it does and how it makes decisions. Wider promotion of the service and its features would deliver even more benefits and ability to generate revenue through renting out the facility helps mitigate the cost impact.”