The live stream for Nottinghamshire County Council's annual budget meeting was down for almost an hour despite it recently spending £335,000 on technology to improve the service.

The authority invested in the new equipment last year to improve the quality of the broadcasts for important meetings at County Hall.

It came as part of a wider package costing more than £400,000 which also included new tech in the West Bridgford building's committee rooms.

The council chamber technology, which cost £335,269.53, includes large, mounted wall displays to allow officers to attend meetings virtually.

Tracking cameras were also installed in the chamber alongside new microphones to focus on councillors when they speak in debates.

The technology was bought after previous kit offered "significant challenges" in live-streaming meetings and broadcasting them onto YouTube.

Difficulties, the authority said at the time, included equipment "malfunctioning", with previous equipment making it "difficult for viewers to follow".

But now the updated tech, which was first used in November, has itself malfunctioned during the budget full council meeting on Thursday (February 9).

It came as Councillor Gordon Wheeler (Con), cabinet member for personnel, stood to speak on the council's 2023/24 financial papers at about 2.20pm.

His microphone failed to work, leading to the meeting being adjourned so technical issues could be addressed. The meeting remained paused until about 2.45pm.

The meeting then continued in person but the live stream did not come back online until 3.15pm.

A notice on the authority's YouTube live stream said: "The meeting is continuing in person at County Hall. The broadcast will continue as soon as possible.

"Technical issues are currently being experienced – please bear with us."

After the live stream came back online, Cllr Roger Jackson (Con), the council's chairman, said during the meeting: "We are playing pass the microphone."

A source inside the chamber revealed councillors' microphone display screens were not working. They began working again at about 3.30pm.

Commenting on the issues, a council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "We're very aware there was a technical issue.

"Engineers and technical support staff were on site, there was no extra cost involved with this staff when the system went down.

"Everything has been logged and sent to the supplier so that this doesn't reoccur."

Cllr Francis-Purdue Horan (Ind), who presented the Independent Alliance's alternative budget plans during the meeting, hit out at the technology failure.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Yet again, the system to stream meetings has failed at a time when the Conservative administration was under huge pressure.

"Residents have a right to follow proceedings as it's their council tax that is paying for this.

"It's like paying for Sky Sports and the broadcast going off at 90+1 minutes. It's not good enough."

A Labour Group spokesperson added: "It was farcical today in the council chamber, given that this audio system was only installed in the last year.

"We hope they've kept the receipts."