18 April 2017

Local government in the comfort of your home

Starting today, the Western Leader will livestream each business meeting of Auckland Council’s three west local boards on Facebook Live.

The meetings of the Henderson-Massey, Waitākere Ranges and Whau local boards will broadcast live at the time, and each will be available to view immediately after the broadcast ceases and will stay up on the paper’s Facebook page.

Tonight’s meeting of the Henderson-Massey Local Board will be the first, beginning at 4pm. Next week will be the first streams of the Whau (26 April) and Waitākere Ranges (27 April) meetings.

Henderson-Massey Local Board Chair Shane Henderson says this initiative will make local government more accessible.

“We are really excited to have this opportunity to improve the public's engagement with local government and elected officials. Livestreaming will make it easy for anyone to check out what their representatives are working on, and how they make the decisions that affect the people of West Auckland.”

Western Leader News Director Rebecca Stevenson says: "We hope this initiative will help people who might otherwise not have much to do with local government get watching, get informed and maybe then get involved. We will help to bring local government to you where you are, when you want to watch it."

"Thank you to the chairs of the local boards for allowing us to do this. We think it is a fantastic commitment from them towards transparent governance."

Whau Local Board Chair Tracy Mulholland says: “The Whau Local Board is happy to do this because we are here to serve the residents of our area. We are accountable to them and want to make it easier for them to see what we are doing on their behalf.”

“I encourage locals to tune in and watch – or even come to the meetings in person!”

Find out the schedules of future local board meetings.

ENDS