Devon County Council spends ‘£4,000 per meeting’ on sound system costs

Questions are being asked after it emerged that nearly £4,000 has to be spent on a sound system when Devon County Council (DCC) holds a full meeting with all its councillors.

The money for audio and recording equipment is spent each time the council holds a meeting of the full council in its chamber at County Hall in Exeter.

Some opposition councillors have criticised the move by the Liberal Democrat administration to hold an extraordinary full council meeting earlier this month to debate the possibility that Exeter City Council might delay its planned elections this year.

READ MORE: Devon County councillors unite against proposed cancellation of local elections

The government had asked many councils if they wished to make a case for postponing their May elections and the county council called a meeting to discuss this even though it not involved in elections this year and has no say in Exeter’s decision.

In fact, it was announced today (Wednesday, January 14) that Exeter has decided to ask the government to call off this year’s election.

The recent county council meeting also addressed the process of local government reorganisation, which the government has required as it seeks to do away with district and county councils – the ‘two tier’ system – and replace them with unitary authorities.  

Councillor Michael Fife Cook, leader of the Reform UK group on DCC, called the meeting ‘virtue signalling’ and questioned the rationale for the meeting, the first of five such pencilled in for 2026.

He said: “My first reaction to this was, why are we having a full council meeting when there is only going to be one thing on the agenda and we’re not even being asked to vote?

“Many would say this is all about democracy and yes it is, but it should also be about cost effectiveness; how can we as a council continually complain we don’t have enough money to do even the smallest of things, when we expend so much on a meeting that could have been held electronically, or could even have been done with a round-robin email.”

Cllr Fife Cook had initially believed the cost of the audio and recording equipment was ‘nearly £3,000’, but the Local Democracy Reporting Service has found it is actually nearer to £4,000.

Cllr Julian Brazil, the leader of the council, stressed the costs were small compared to the overall council budget and particularly what it was effectively being forced to spend on local government reorganisation.

He said: “To put some perspective on this, the latest estimate is that local government reorganisation in Devon is likely to cost around £50million.

“If as a result of the meeting earlier this month, our response persuades the government to delay local government reorganisation, it will save Devon residents tens of millions of pounds.”

A council spokesperson said the audio and recording equipment costs for meetings in the council chamber included setting up microphones, speakers and hearing loops, as well as the recording and streaming of the meeting.

“This is an interim measure until the council is able to update the sound system and recording system inside the council chamber,” they said.

“It was felt important to hold that meeting in person, rather than over Teams or by email, and given the seriousness of the proposal, the leader of the council wanted to encourage all members to have the opportunity to have their say.

“Many of the members, across all the political groups, took the opportunity to put forward their views, and that will inform the leader’s response to government.

“This way, the council is able to respond with one voice.”