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No tweeting from council meeting

News from the Boston Standard, Lincolnshire: bostonstandard.co.uk, on Twitter @standardboston

Published on 24/01/2013 12:34

Live twitter updates will not be allowed from tonight’s full Boston Borough Council meeting.

The borough authority currently only permits people to use Twitter during cabinet meetings and says its constitution will have to be changed to allow the social media site to be used to provide live updates from other meeetings.

Borough Mayor Coun Colin Brotherton is allowed to sanction the use of Twitter from tonight’s meeting but opted to decline a request from The Standard to use his powers to do this.

A spokesman for the authority said that a date has yet to be set to look at changing the constitution and that the Mayor believes the use of Twitter is a matter that should wait until that discussion.

Standard editor Stephen Stray said: “I am saddened by the decision not to allow the use of social media to report live from tonight’s full council meeting.

“I am disappointed the decision has been taken to hide behind the authority’s clearly outdated constitution.

“Given that we are permitted to tweet from cabinet meetings, there appears to be no good reason why we shouldn’t be allowed to do the

same at full council.

“I can assure you we will request that this is looked at promptly so we can continue to give you, our readers and the ratepayers of Boston, the best coverage we can.”

Tonight’s meeting is set to feature a discussion on changes to council tax benefit.

Reader Mark Rawlings took to Twitter to react to the decision, posting: “Is this the same council who claimed transparency before election?”

Follow reporter Gemma Gadd (@standardgemma) for updates after the meeting.

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