Major Durham County Council meeting abandoned after livestream crashes

Durham County Council was forced to abandon and rearrange a major meeting this week due to “technical issues.”
Durham County Council's HQDurham County Council's HQ
Durham County Council's HQ

Councillors were set to discuss a lengthy agenda at virtual meeting of full council on Wednesday, December 2, which was held via videolink and broadcast on YouTube.

The agenda included updates on public health, proposals to extend the local council tax reduction scheme and five motions.

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Before these items could be discussed, the livestream froze and failed to restart.

This followed technical issues earlier in the meeting when the livestream temporarily crashed as tributes were paid to the council’s chief executive, Terry Collins, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Helen Lynch, Durham County Council’s head of legal and democratic services, said: “Unfortunately, due to technical issues, council were not able to consider all matters scheduled for discussion at today’s meeting.

“This is obviously disappointing and we would like to apologise to everyone affected.

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“We are looking at options for reconvening the meeting at the earliest possible opportunity so that any outstanding issues can be dealt with.”

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, councils across the country have been meeting remotely in line with social distancing guidelines.

This week’s full council meeting was the second to be held by Durham County Council since the last budget meeting in February 2020.

An updated start time for the reconvened meeting of ‘county council’ is expected to be published on the council’s website.

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