Doncaster Council edited out a councillor’s question concerning a £630,000 building sale from a video of a public meeting before uploading the recording to its YouTube channel.

The authority has defended the decision on the grounds the question included the “inappropriate” naming of a council officer. It also confirmed it has made similar edits “on a number of occasions” to other meeting recordings.

Reform councillor Jason Charity had asked a question to Labour mayor Ros Jones at a full council meeting on February 27 which related to the sale of Doncaster Business Innovation Centre (DBIC).

The building, which is owned by a council-owned company called Arthur Street (Doncaster) Developments, was sold at auction for £630,000 in June 2024 but the sale process is still yet to be completed.

A question asked by Jason Charity at a recent Doncaster Council meeting has been edited out of a YouTube recording by the local authority.

placeholder image — A question asked by Jason Charity at a recent Doncaster Council meeting has been edited out of a YouTube recording by the local authority.

It is due to be purchased by a company called DBIC Trading, which was established in June 2024. Sources have said that part of the hold-up has been a now-resolved dispute about whether VAT was included in the agreed sale price.

Councillor Charity had previously asked about the DBIC issue in a January council meeting. At that point, he asked whether any decisions or actions regarding the sale had been taken, directed or influenced by the mayor or officers acting on her behalf rather than the Arthur Street company.

Mayor Jones replied that questions should be directed to Arthur Street’s board of directors and it would be “inappropriate” to discuss details of the transaction in public.

Councillor Charity said he had asked a further question and received a response from the mayor in the February meeting.

A recording of the February council meeting was uploaded to the council’s YouTube channel on March 3. But a section of the video shows Councillor Charity being called to ask a question, saying ‘Thank you chair’ before there are shouts of ‘Point of order’. The video then goes silent for a couple of seconds before cutting to Mayor Jones appearing to answer a prior question from a different councillor.

Coun Charity confirmed his question related to decision-making processes surrounding the DBIC matter and had named an officer.

A spokesperson for City of Doncaster Council said it “isn’t appropriate to comment on commercially-sensitive matters” when asked about the progress of the DBIC sale and what the mayor’s response to Coun Charity’s question had been.

The spokesperson added: “Regarding the YouTube recording, there is no legal obligation for a council to film its meetings and no obligation to publish any recordings it does make.

“The question at council identified a council officer and referred to a contentious commercial matter involving both the council and third parties. It is inappropriate to name officers as they do not have a right of reply in the meeting in the same manner as another councillor may have.

"Although rare, edits have previously been made on a number of occasions.”

Coun Charity said legal privilege applies to what is said in council meetings and he had named the officer in a factual context.

“Council meetings are recorded and published on YouTube as a matter of public transparency,” he said. “The deletion of my question is a serious matter. The effect is that the public cannot see or hear what was said.”

A video uploaded on the council’s YouTube page on March 19 of a different meeting from March 6 has been posted alongside a message “This video has been edited to remove personal or unsubstantiated information/statements made during the meeting about individuals”. No such comment was made alongside the February 27 video.

The council’s policy on audio and visual recordings from 2015 says their publication allows members of the public to “listen and view a true record of council meetings” and allows the council to “demonstrate openness, transparency and accountability”.

But the policy also states “there may be occasions where exempt items are discussed or sensitive dialogue or comments are made which would be omitted from the version uploaded to the council’s website. The council would retain the unedited version”.

It adds: “A decision with regard to the editing of recordings would need to be agreed by council during the proceedings of the meeting or any subsequent edits would be made subject to agreement by the Monitoring Officer if this were deemed necessary.”

DBIC Trading said it was unable to comment.