February 9: Kent TV: The End
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IT cannot have been an easy decision but in
scrapping its internet TV station Kent TV, the
county council has shown that it will not shy away from tough
decisions as it confronts the challenge of a squeeze on its
finances.
It will be argued, of course,
that the decision could have come sooner and you cannot get away
from the fact that it has cost the taxpayer a fairly eye-watering
£1.8million over two and a half years.
KCC to
scrap Kent TV: read our story here>>
The Kent TV project was totemic
for the council, which believes it was an example of its
willingness to innovate and take risks in a way others were not
prepared to. Risks, of course, are taken knowing that they might
not come off.
But KCC leader Paul
Carter is not someone who tends to duck tricky decisions –
it was left to him to pull the rug on the first version of the
much-maligned Turner Centre several years ago,
when the project’s costs spiralled out of control. This is another
example.
I suspect the Conservative
administration was well aware that it risked creating a hostage to
fortune if it went ahead with a new four-year contract which might
have come at a cost of £600,000 per annum to the
public purse – especially at a time when key frontline services
were likely to be coming under increasing pressure.
Sensitivities may also have been
heightened in a general election year.
Critics of Kent TV often
suggested that it was nothing more than a propaganda vehicle for
the authority. I’m not sure that was entirely right or even fair,
although the potential for that to happen was undoubtedly
there.
In its early days, it certainly
featured too many interviews with county councillors and you could
make the case that its news content tended to steer away from overt
criticism of the authority. But it never struck me as the Kent
equivalent of Pravda.
The politicians’ handling of
Kent TV has not always been deft.
There is a certain irony that on
the one occasion where they may get some credit, it has been their
decision to pull the plug.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
KCC's cross-party cabinet scrutiny
committee, which had been due to discuss the fate of Kent
TV at its meeting today (Wednesday 10) ended up having only a brief
discussion on the matter, yesterday's announcement rather
overtaking things.
There were on or two questions
to the cabinet member responsible, Cllr Roger
Gough about the tender process. He confirmed that the
council had not received any bids from companies who had indicated
that they could have operated Kent TV without a public subsidy,
saying: "If there were, we would be having a rather different
discussion."
He also confirmed that KCC
would, as a result of its contract with Ten Alps, be able to retain
the rights to all the video material that had already been shown
over the two and a half years.
He was also candid about his
scepticism over the soap produced for Kent TV, "Hollywould" telling
the committee that in his view, he had been proved wrong and
his reservations about whether it was the right thing for Kent
TV to be doing misplaced.
Wednesday, February 10 2010
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