A REQUIREMENT for visitors to County Hall to sign an undertaking not to film meetings has been dropped.

Carmarthenshire Council has said filming meetings is still not allowed and that will not change before a special group of councillors looking into the issue reports back next month.

Last summer Llanwrda internet blogger Jacqui Thompson was arrested and later released without charge after attempting to film a council meeting.

The council then told visitors wanting to attend council meetings that they would not be allowed to enter the public gallery unless they signed an agreement not to film meetings.

But last week the authority stated: "In order to reduce the burden of administration, members of the public who wish to view proceedings from the public gallery in the council chamber will no longer be asked to sign an undertaking not to film, only to read and agree to it. In accordance with fire regulations, every visitor must be issued with a visitor's card, and provide details of their name, address and nature of their business."

Mrs Thompson, 49, said it was about time the signing-in policy was changed. "My thoughts are that they realised it was totally out of order to make people sign it," she said. "We have been questioning it and they have been saying it's all above board and now, suddenly, they have dropped it."

Councillor Sian Caiach, leader of the People First group, said she would try again to get an apology from the council for Mrs Thompson.

She said: "This has been a shameful episode for Carmarthenshire County Council and I am glad it is over.

"We have absolutely nothing to hide and surely our electorate have the right to freely access our meetings and record them if they so wish."

She said an audio recording could be produced with the existing sound system and it would be nice to have a video system to stream them online.