Crowland leaders to live stream their meetings on social media
Crowland council tax payers and families will be able to watch how decisions are made about their town from next month.
Parish councillors voted eight to one, with two abstentions, for all meetings to be screened live on social media after a three-month trial in the summer.
During a virtual meeting on Monday, held in an online conferencing format where councillors and other guests could "dial in and watch", it was revealed that between about 300 and 3,220 people had watched meetings screened live on Facebook in June, July and August.
Crowland resident Sally Tansley said: "There's been very positive conversations going on and the general consensus was that it's quite lovely to be able to listen to and see the parish council meetings.
"If we want people to engage, we need to let them know that the meetings are happening.
"A weekly reminder before the meeting, then another reminder on the day of the meeting would help."
Figures presented by Coun Philip Green showed that viewing figures dropped from 3,220 in June and 2,620 in July to just 300 in August, although there was no way of knowing how long people watched the meetings for.
Sally said: "There was a general trend in the numbers before August which is when the reminders stopped.
"That decline wasn't because people weren't interested, it's because they've got other things going on in their daily lives."
Concerns about the live streaming of meetings were raised by Coun Jon Boor who said: "You join the parish council to have monthly meetings, with members of the public invited to them if they've got a particular interest.
"I think that throwing them open to hundreds of people is perhaps not the way forward."
But parish and district councillor Bryan Alcock responded: "For every meeting of the parish council, members of the public have the right to come along and sit in the meeting.
"It's not a matter that we invite them, they've actually got a right to go along and the present legislation says the public has the option of being able to listen to the meeting."
. No Christmas lights switch on, fair and market in Crowland this year
Crowland's annual Christmas lights switch on, grand market and fairs event has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement was made during Monday's parish council meeting where Coun Cathi Elphee confirmed that the decision was made for the "safety of parishioners".
However, a Christmas tree and lights will be put up in the town centre, with the possibility that a scaled back switching on ceremony will be filmed and posted on social media.
Coun Elphee said: "We were hoping the circumstances might dictate that we could go ahead with the Christmas fair.
"We still want the lights and the tree, but we've made the difficult decision that we won't hold a switch on event and fair this year.
"It's because of the 'rule of six' and for the safety of parishioners, but we feel it's important that we keep something going to engage with the youngsters and try to keep them interested."