HAMPSHIRE County Council's expensive scheme set up to stream their meetings online has been described this week as a "total waste of money".

A budget meeting in February was the first to be broadcast and that has attracted more than 1,300 viewers but, in the months that followed, numbers have fallen dramatically with fewer and fewer people logging on and a mere 81 viewing the latest meeting.

Speaking on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, councillor Adam Carew, who is also deputy chairman of Whitehill Town Council, said that while transparency was a good thing, the £205,000 allocated for the video and audio equipment could have been better spent elsewhere.

For full story, see this week's Alton Herald.