THE new leader of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council says one of his priorities will be ensuring major meetings are webcast.
As the Mirror expected, Councillor Victor Broad was elected into the top post last Thursday at the annual council meeting.
If webcasting is introduced, it will allow residents to watch council meetings live over the internet from home.
On why he plans to bring the technology into meetings, Cllr Broad told the Mirror: "The thing I want to be absolutely committed to is making the council more open and transparent.
"What I have asked the chief executive to do, which we would like to do, is to get our two main council meetings, planning and full council, available on webcast. Councillors often take a kicking for what goes wrong but at the end of the day we have one of the best-run councils in the country. I want to make residents aware of how good a council we have."
Cllr Broad said a date had not been set for when webcasting would be introduced but the technology is already in place.
Cllr Broad, ward member for Tadworth and Walton, takes over from Cllr Joan Spiers, who led the council for 12 years, after being selected by the Conservative Party to replace her.
He said: "It's a great challenge really. Obviously I was deputy leader for over four years and I'm quite happy to do it.
"I'm quite involved in the council and quite clearly after having been her [Joan Spiers'] deputy, when she wanted to step aside, a lot of people said to me 'Well why don't you take over?' and I thought, 'Why not?'"
When asked about his other priorities for the next four years, Cllr Broad said: "I want the borough to be a really comprehensive borough in terms of the kind of people we have living in it."
Cllr Broad has also set up a working group to better understand and deal with community problems.
He explained: "The other thing I have introduced is a committee that is going to work closely with the community because there are charities and organisations which do not get the support they need. So I'm setting up a committee to investigate some of the areas that need help from the business community."
