Council spends £3,000 on “pointless” video

By Anh Nguyen

ISLINGTON Council has spent £3,000 on making a presentation video for this week’s executive meeting at the Town Hall.

The council showed the video, which illustrated its plans to improve services for disabled people in the borough, to an audience of less than 50 council employees and residents.

Councillor John Gilbert, executive member for health and audit, introduced the video, saying that the new format “makes a change from me talking with a powerpoint presentation.”

The video showed images taken from the consultation days that the council held with local disability groups in early September. The scenes were interspersed with people praising the council for their plans to introduce better services for disabled people, which includes appointing a Disability Access Officer.

Residents in the audience, however, were not impressed with the presentation.

Jenny Williams, an Islington resident and carer, said: “I can’t believe the council wasted so much money on making the pointless video. They should be spending the money on actually doing something to improve services for disabled people.”

At first, the council said that the video would only be shown at the meeting, but when an opposition queried the cost of the video, it said they would make the video more widely available.

Councillor Lucy Watt, deputy leader of the council, said: “The DVD was commissioned because it presents positive images of disabled people and the Disability Equality Scheme is an example of good practice in involving disabled people in consultation.

“There are plans to use it at the Disability Equality Scheme launch next month, and we will use it internally and make it available externally for training purposes.”