COUNTY councillors have backed plans to spend £86,000 updating and repairing faulty equipment in County Hall’s council chamber in Maidstone. The chamber at Sessions House is used chiefly for meetings of the full council as well as other committees.

However, it has suffered a series of problems in recent years. The electronic voting system installed in 1986 frequently malfunctions while the air conditioning unit often breaks down. Often, meetings are plunged into darkness because the ceiling lights go out if the temperature becomes too high while the acoustics make it hard to hear speakers during debates.

The problems have become so bad an engineer from the company responsible now attends all meetings held in the chamber. KCC has defended the proposals saying it rejected a more expensive option to completely replace the faulty equipment. That could have cost £140,000.

Cllr Mike Harrison, the Conservative chairman of the council’s Selection Committee, said it was becoming essential to upgrade the voting equipment and the money would have to be found somewhere. “We owe it to the public of Kent because we take decisions in these meetings which can have an impact for many years. What is absolutely essential is that some kind of upgrading takes place but not one which is a piecemeal job,” he addded.

The improvements would make it easier to market and hire out the council chamber to outside groups and organisations. About £64,000 would be spent on repairing the voting equipment and £22,000 on air conditioning.

A final decision will be taken by the Conservative cabinet and would then have to be approved by the full council.