HELMSLEY town councillors have agreed to stop recording their meetings.

The decision was made at a meeting of the council on October 30.

The council heard that prior to the meeting only one request had ever been made for a copy of a recording.

They also heard that the recordings are not used to aid minute taking, and that the council does not have any duty to record meetings.

But one Helmsley resident told the Gazette & Herald that they found the plan to end the recording of meetings to be a “sinister” move.

“An audio recording increases transparency and around decision-making and enables greater accountability of elected representatives,” they said.

At the meeting, Cllr Jake Duncombe said that recording had been requested by a former councillor to aid transparency.

He added he didn’t think recording was necessary for the level of decision-making being made by the town council.

“If someone wants to record us there’s nothing to stop them coming here and recording us,” he said. “So on the subject of transparency, if people are interested in the issues they should come to meetings.”

The council also discussed deleting its archive of recordings from prior meetings but decided against it.