RECENT censorship of the council webcast was raised as a matter of concern by an opposition member.

Labour councillor Stephen Burns, addressing all members of Cheshire West and Chester Council in Winsford, called for any future suspension of the webcast to be voted on after recent broadcasts were ‘paused’ when controversial exchanges took place.

At the executive meeting on March 14, the sound was muted and the broadcast eventually switched off when two creditors challenged council leader Mike Jones over his liquidated company’s debts.

Their contributions were deleted from the recorded version, which appeared online the next day with the explanatory message ‘webcast suspended due to a breach of the council’s rules on public speaking in meetings’.

At the April 16 executive the live webcast went off again, with the onscreen message ‘webcast paused’, towards the end of a speech by one of the same creditors with the loss of more than 30 seconds of footage.

Council press officer Ian Callister said afterwards there had been a ‘technical blip’.

Introducing his motion, Cllr Burns (Winsford Swanlow and Dene) said: “There have been instances since March 2011 where recorded events from a live webcast have been mysteriously lost when people have asked to view it.”

He added: “I feel it is vital that control of ceasing broadcast or editing broadcasts should never be at the behest of any one political party or any one politician.”

He argued the suspension of a webcast should be proposed, seconded and voted on in future.

However, his motion will now be debated at the audit and governance committee after Cllr Eveleigh Moore Dutton (Tarporley), from the ruling Tory administration, argued the issues may be more complex than at first glance.