People in Christchurch will be able to watch their community board meetings on YouTube after the city council reversed its earlier refusal to record them.
Community board meetings will be held via Zoom under the current red alert level, with livestream recordings posted to YouTube.
Pandemic restrictions prevented the public from attending in-person meetings last year, yet the board also encountered capacity problems as members of the public attempted to attend meetings Zoom.
Moore said this was the “ideal outcome".
"I was ready to ask permission to record again, but by the time I could do that I got this news that we got this news that we were going to do live stream recording."
Streaming meetings to YouTube will make them accessible to people who could not watch them live, and would enable the public to see how decisions were made, he said.
"It’s a reasonably simple thing to offer and facilitate, and an important one as well.
Board chairman Mike Mora was also pleased with the development and said he was thankful Moore had pushed for it.
"It’s especially important in Covid times," Mora said.
Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood Community Board chairwoman Bridget Williams hoped the ease of watching a livestream would lead to an increase in the number of people actively engaged in community issues.
"It’s a wonderful thing to give more accessibility," she said.
Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board chairwoman Karolin Potter said the board likes the idea of meetings being more accessible to the public.
"We hope the technology that puts council meetings online will become available at board level too," Potter said.
Coastal-Burwood Community Board chairman Kelly Barber said the board had discussed the idea earlier in the term and embraced it. The board is already livestreaming meetings to their Facebook page for the public to view.
"I think it’s an inevitable progression," Barber said.
"Times have changed and technology needs to be embraced, especially if it means people get to find out what’s happening in their community sooner and more conveniently for them."
Barber said it was a step forward in public access, meaning people at work who can’t get to a community board meeting will be able to watch it online later that day.
“It’ll increase transparency, accountability, engagement and maybe even the behaviour of all concerned."
Papanui-Innes Community Board chairwoman Emma Norrish said livestreaming, something the Papanui-Innes board already undertook independently, was an easy way to make decision-making more transparent.
"I hope it is something which will continue to be done by all boards when we go back to meeting in person," she said.
City council head of community support and partnerships John Filsell said the council was in the process of setting up a YouTube channel for each community board.
"It is our intention to livestream all community board meetings to YouTube in the current red traffic light setting," Filsell said.
Not all the rooms used to host community board meetings had the technology to stream a good quality video, he said.
However, it was not only members of the public who would be relegated to online attendance.
Board members would not be meeting physically in red alert level.
"With members of meetings attending via a device, we believe the obstacle of a poor quality stream will be overcome."
It was possible community board meetings would continue to be livestreamed in lower alert levels in spite of the technical issues with some meeting rooms.
"Staff will be investigating options to enable this in the future when community boards physically meet in the same space."
