A DORSET Council meeting disappeared from the internet – shortly after questions were asked about a planned savings programme.

Those watching the recording of the Monday evening (23 September) meeting of the council's Audit and Governance Committee saw it freeze with a message popping onto the screen to say the video was now private.

In happened immediately after Cllr Jill Haynes (Con, Chalk Valleys) questioned the effectiveness of a £8.6million 'transformation' programme which will seek to make savings by streamlining services.

Finance portfolio holder Cllr Simon Clifford (Lib Dem, Chickerell) was about to speak in reply when the screen went blank.

Immediate attempts to find the recording via the council's own website and the authority's You Tube channel failed to unearth any trace of the meeting with the link to the recording, send out in the original papers, no longer viewable, although it re-emerged on Wednesday, along with the recording.

The situation follows recent problems with broadcast of live meetings – with several people saying they had switched off the live or recorded version of the September meeting of the full council, held at the Weymouth Town Council offices, because of poor audio quality.

Other committee meetings have had problems with complaints about speakers failing to say who they were, or not being introduced by committee chairs; or people not being able to hear everything being said.

Dorset Council has twice been asked this week to explain the 'loss' of the meeting, but has not responded to a question about why the recording had paused and then disappeared with all links to it no longer visible, before once again being made avaialble to the public.