Summary
A report on residents and a councillor who could not hear a crowded committee meeting in a London borough's council chamber, where the council says two hearing loops are checked before every meeting.
Key findings
- Reports that at a scrutiny committee meeting on 23 January 2025, with both levels of the public gallery full, residents interrupted several times to say they could not hear, although members speak one at a time into microphones connected to loudspeakers in the chamber and the gallery.
- Reports that a councillor who uses a hearing aid was struggling to hear an officer from a seat in the chamber.
- Reports the council's statement that two hearing loops cover the chamber and galleries and that each is checked before every meeting, and that the chair asked for quiet, moved people from the upper to the lower gallery and adjusted the volume.
- Reports that the council was looking at how to increase the amplification in the galleries, and that opposition councillors asked for a review of the audio systems "particularly for individuals with hearing impairments" and an updated hearing loop.
Limits
A news report of one meeting, written during a political dispute. It does not say whether anyone used the loops or how they performed, and the council says heckling from the gallery added to the problem.
Read the original
walthamforestecho.co.uk/2025/01/30/tories-slam-council-for-poor-hearing-levels-in-chamber
Cited in
- What works in courtrooms, council chambers and other meeting rooms where speech must be heard by all and kept in the room?Partly answered
Cite this source
Mann S (Local Democracy Reporter). Tories slam council for ‘poor’ hearing levels in chamber. Waltham Forest Echo. 30 January 2025. https://walthamforestecho.co.uk/2025/01/30/tories-slam-council-for-poor-hearing-levels-in-chamber/ (accessed 9 October 2026).
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