SILENCE is golden but not during a council meeting where technical issues caused no sound to emit on a live stream.

Councillors sitting on the audit and corporate governance committee met face-to-face on Tuesday, March 1, at the council’s Observatory House headquarters to discuss various items on the agenda.

This included plans for the 2022/23 internal audit, an update on the council’s risk management and 2021/22 internal audit for quarter four, and progress on the local authority closing six of its companies.

While the public can choose to attend meetings physically, people can watch it on a live stream via the local authority’s website.

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However, when the meeting started at 6:30pm, sound was not coming out despite councillors turning on their microphones.

The audit and corporate governance meeting was adjourned in a bid to fix the technical issue but to no avail.

Residents can re-watch the two-hour meeting, but there is no sound to accompany the video.

A council spokesperson said: “There was a technical issue with the streaming service which could not be solved on the night.

“Engineers from the company who provides the system will be attending to provide a fix.”

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This isn’t the first time technical issues have plagued meetings.

Last year, viewers were left frustrated when the live stream of an audit and corporate governance meeting on the two damning reports on the council’s 2018/19 financial accounts went down.

People wanting to watch that meeting were greeted with a black screen that read ‘stream will start shortly’.

Council business has been undertaken face-to-face since May 2021 when coronavirus restrictions were eased. During lockdown, local authorities across the UK were held virtually via different platforms, such as Zoom.

While Slough Borough Council does webcast and records its meeting, it is under no legal obligation to do so.