Council meetings to stay online indefinitely under YouTube switch

Nicholas Thomas – Local democracy reporter

A switch to YouTube for council meeting broadcasts means recordings will be available to the public indefinitely, a local authority leader has confirmed.

Caerphilly County Borough Council began livestreaming some public meetings on its YouTube channel in September 2025 and now routinely uses the website for its broadcasts, with recordings available immediately after meetings end.

Independent councillor Janine Reed said the council’s previous policy included a “woefully inaccurate” 18-month retention period for recordings, “making it much harder for the public to look back at what was actually said and hold the council to account”.

She asked whether the same limit on preserving recordings would apply under the new YouTube system.

The council’s leader, Cllr Jamie Pritchard, said he was “all for publicising everything we do in the best possible way, via any recording or improving where we can”.

While Welsh legislation does not specify any retention time for recorded meetings, he said questions over extending those rules were “now academic, as the live stream of all our meetings is by the council’s YouTube channel, which has no retention period”.

Cllr Pritchard said Caerphilly’s policy of livestreaming meetings went beyond minimum expectations and included broadcasts of committees.

He said council staff were also working on uploading older meetings to YouTube, and added recordings were “only one element of the process, with formal decisions and detailed minutes also published on the council’s website, which members of the public can access for many years”.

But Cllr Reed said written minutes were less helpful when trying “to be specific on what somebody had said” in a meeting.

“Recordings are brilliant because you can see what people have said and hold them to account,” she said. “Minutes are only an overview.”

The leader said the council was keen to “improve the way we broadcast meetings”.

“I’d like to see as many recordings made available as possible,” he said. “No councillor should have anything to hide when it’s public meetings.”

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