Depending on which side of the fence you sit, social networking is either a good way to whittle away a few hours in the evening or its a menace to commercial and business enterprise. Chorley council has decided it is definitely the latter as they have noticed that councillors are tweeting while sat in council meetings when they should be debating what’s happening in Chorley.

According to Mayor Ken Ball, who says he knows how to turn a phone on and off and make a call but has no idea what Twitter even is, one councillor had no idea what they were supposed to be voting on on one occasion because they had spent their time on the social networking site instead of listening to the debate.

As a result, all Chorley councillors have been banned from using their mobile phones during council meetings and there obviously hasn’t been any protest over this. However, some councillors have defended their overall use of social networking saying that it is a quick and effective way to get a message out to relevant people.

Chorley North West councillor said of his use of Twitter “I probably post about one or two messages a day, depending on what’s going on, and I’ve got about 180 followers. It’s all about getting the message out to as many people as possible and I’m not scared to try new things.  But, I wouldn’t do it during meetings, I’m far too focused on what’s going on, plus I sit at the front.”