Kent County Council is to spend £250,000 developing and extending digital services in the wake of its decision to scrap Kent TV, its controversial internet TV channel.

The Conservative administration is to spend the money improving its website, developing the events listing "What's On" and to continue funding the webcasting council meetings.

Under its plans, the authority's website, which was relaunched last year at a cost of £277,000, will incorporate a video channel which will stream videos publicising council services and aimed at developing tourism.

The council has retained the ownership of material produced by Kent TV, which cost the council £1.8million, and is expected to incorporate some of this into the website's video channel. A youth channel could also be developed.

The county council's plans came under the spotlight when they were discussed at a meeting of KCC's watchdog cabinet scrutiny committee (Fri 9).

One Conservative backbencher warned the council against creating a second version of "Kent TV" that the public had no interest in.

Cllr Jeremy Kite (Con) said: "We do not want to find ourselves where it becomes less of an asset and more of a problem. I am quite concerned that we are making big decisions here that are disconnected to the people of Kent. The only people we do not seem to be asking are the residents of Kent and they are paying for it."

He urged the authority to consider setting up a "superblog" along the lines of increasingly popular political websites like ConservativeHome, saying they had succeeded because they gave people an outlet to debate issues.

Cllr Roger Gough (Con), cabinet member for corporate services, said the authority was still developing ideas for the Kent Digital Service.

"The £250,000 is significantly less than half the cost of Kent TV and the figure is the upper level of what could be spent. We do need to develop ways of becoming more interactive with residents," he said.