Coventry city councillors given OK to tweet during meetings

[dutchman]

Coventry City Council today voted to ditch its ban on councillors tweeting during full council meetings.

This afternoon's first full council meeting since Ann Lucas ousted Labour colleague John Mutton to become council leader last month decided to end the Labour group's former ban on use of phones and electronic devices.

Some Conservative councillors, including Kevin Foster, had objected to the former ban - denying tweeting prevented councillors from concentrating on key votes on taxpayers' behalf.

Coun Foster two years ago famously defied the Twitter ban by tweeting 103 times from a full council meeting - and was warned by council chief executive Martin Reeves he could be removed from the chamber.

Some Labour councillors were also known to privately object to the Twitter ban.

The Twitter ban in 2011 coincided with a Parliamentary vote on whether MPs should be allowed to tweet from the House of Commons - with MPs voting in favour.

Deputy council leader, Labour councillor Phil Townshend said it was coun Lucas's decision to ensure the chamber was now "open for tweeting".

Coun Foster said it would enable better councillors to communicate with their constituents.

He added: "It was bizarre as all you had to do was walk out of the chamber into the corridor to tweet."