Conwy Council comes under fire for censoring videos of public meetings

Conwy Council has come under fire after admitting to retrospectively censoring two separate video webcasts of public meetings.

According to several councillors, the council most recently edited a YouTube video, erasing part of a legal dispute.

The local authority has since admitted to censoring a second video in 2022 when it erased footage of what it describes as a “wardrobe malfunction”.

On December 8, councillors met at Bodlondeb to discuss the appointment of Cllr David Carr to the democratic services committee.

After being put forward by the Green Independent party, Cllr Carr’s membership should have been automatically rubber-stamped by councillors, ensuring the 17-member committee was politically balanced.

Instead, a vote was taken – the legitimacy of which was disputed – and Cllr Carr’s membership was refused, despite claims his appointment should have been a formality.

Cllr Carr’s appointment was then deferred based on legal advice, before the Old Colwyn councillor was eventually accepted into the group on January 26.

But council officers chose to delete the controversial vote from a YouTube video of the meeting.

The item was not classed as confidential, meaning the press and public were free to attend.

One councillor, who wished to remain anonymous, slammed Conwy for deleting the footage.

They said: “I was shocked when I was told that the council had edited the video recordings of its meetings.

“It undermines public confidence in the democratic process.

“It’s important that the council takes action to put this right and ensure that the public can have confidence in the system.”

A second councillor said: “I’m shocked that a video has been edited without authority from the membership in attendance.

“Obviously I believe in democracy and accountability. It is not the reputation we want as a council.”

A Conwy County Council spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that a brief section of the public webcast has been removed retrospectively at the request of the monitoring officer.

“There are occasionally exceptional circumstances, as in this case, where we must consider balancing the rights of individuals with the need for openness and transparency.

“Following the setting-up of a new political group, there was an item to council in December to confirm the membership of the democratic services committee.

“A vote was taken where councillors did not confirm the membership, and the councillors were advised that such a decision could be unlawful.

“Therefore, the councillors voted to defer the item and for a further report to be presented to the January meeting.

“The draft minutes for the January meeting aren’t yet published, but the council confirmed the membership of the democratic services committee.”

When asked if any other videos had been retrospectively edited in the past year, the spokeswoman said: “A brief section of a webcast was removed on one other occasion in 2022, due to a wardrobe malfunction.”

Cllr David Carr was contacted for a comment.

By Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter