Members of the public and press were shut out of a council meeting that was supposed to be livestreamed over the internet.

The meeting of Enfield’s cabinet on Wednesday (July 15) – where senior councillors made a number of key decisions – was due to be broadcast via Microsoft Teams.

But when the Local Democracy Reporting Service tried to access the event, it received the message: “You need permission to join this live event. Please contact the organiser.”

Members of the public and press are entitled to view cabinet meetings, which have been held remotely since the coronavirus pandemic.

The only exception is when members vote during a meeting to move to a private session – which was not on the agenda on Wednesday.

Several attempts to access the event were made over the following two hours, without success. Council officers were contacted but were unable to resolve the issue.

Members of the public complained on Facebook group Enfield Voices that they were unable to view the meeting.

A Conservative councillor, Cllr Lindsay Rawlings, posted on the forum that she could access the meeting from her council iPad but not from her personal device.

Other meetings held by Enfield Council have been livestreamed without any technical difficulties in recent weeks.

During the cabinet meeting, councillors discussed a number of items relating to the council’s finances, including the medium-term financial strategy.

They were also set to approve a strategy aimed at cutting the council’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2030.

Enfield Council’s monitoring officer, Jeremy Chambers, said: “Due to an officer error, members of the public were unable to log into the live Cabinet meeting on 15 July. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“We have put a system in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again and all meetings that have already been arranged are being checked so they are accessible to the public.

“We are also in the process of writing to all Enfield councillors, explaining what occurred. The meeting minutes will be made available shortly from enfield.gov.uk.”