'Technology eh?' Leeds council meeting ravaged by technical glitches

With social distancing forcing public meetings out of Civic Hall for the timebeing, the majority of Leeds' 99 elected councillors were due to tune in for an online discussion about the issues facing the city on Wednesday afternoon.

The coronavirus pandemic and its impact on schools and unpaid carers were on the agenda and the meeting was due to be streamed on the council's website.

But on Wednesday the local authority announced the meeting had been delayed by an hour-and-a-half from its scheduled start time of 1pm because of technical problems.

When it did start, the stream was heavily disrupted, making it impossible to discern what councillors were saying and the authority's leader Judith Blake, was cut off from speaking while mid-sentence.

After another interruption, members were told they'd be sent a new link so the meeting could continue afresh.

Amid murmurs, one councillor was heard to grumble, "This is not good enough".

Another was heard to say, "Technology eh?"

After a long delay, the local authority managed to get proceedings going at 4.30pm.

Committee meetings run by Leeds City Council since the pandemic started have been streamed, mostly without problems, on its website.

However, other organisations elsewhere have had technological woes of their own as the UK adjusts to new ways of conducting business.

Back in April, an online meeting of Somerset County Council was disrupted by someone playing sounds from a porn film, while in Northern Ireland councillors were unable to make their voices heard at a meeting there because of streaming difficulties.

Local Democracy Reporting Service