A CHRISTCHURCH councillor says he will battle to get all council meetings live streamed.

Cllr Trevor Watts says he wants to make the council more transparent and said he will be "battling for and championing this" in the future.

Cllr Watts is on the planning committee, who had their meeting live streamed to YouTube in June as part of a trial. The decision whether to live stream all council meetings will be made by the scrutiny committee, followed by full council in September.

He said live streaming gives residents the chance to watch "their councillor battling for them".

He added: "I think you cannot get any more open or transparent than having live streamed meetings. Call us internet stars? Well, those people who shine will always shine. I think in the world we live in, one thing I get very upset with is when people say that councillors are being bribed – we’re not. This shows what we are doing for our communities and individual people. This is an incredible mechanism to say: ‘This is what we do for you’.

"There will be times where meetings have to be kept behind closed doors - that is to protect the council and the partners they are dealing with from business points of view. Otherwise, let's have everything out in the open, let's stream every single meeting."