Council chiefs have been forced to defend their ongoing block on public access to meetings in South Ayrshire.
Authorities at County Buildings in Ayr are continuing to do their business behind closed doors one year on from Covid lockdown.
The press and public are prevented from accessing all meetings held online.
It comes despite the council launching a new "video conferencing service" that allows residents to speak to customer service staff.
But officials insist they have yet to procure the proper software to allow wider access to their important decision-making sessions.
In a Scottish Government document seen by Ayrshire Live, they say: "The decision to live stream meetings is ultimately a matter for each individual council.
"However, in the interests of openness, democracy and transparency, we would strongly encourage councils to make every effort for this to happen.
"There are options available which enable councils to competently and inclusively conduct remote meetings and live stream these meetings to the public – it has already been demonstrated by other councils that this is possible."
The council's opposition leader, Conservative Martin Dowey, said: "Our group has consistently pressed for wider public access to what are very important meetings.
"It is a vital part of democracy that all decisions are taken transparently.
"Yet at every turn, we have been fed a long list of excuses as to why this cannot happen in South Ayrshire – from the potential of coronavirus infections through to a lack of computer software.
"We are now 12 months down the line from the first Covid lockdown and frankly the public deserves better."
A council spokesperson said: "The new video conferencing service is an appointment based video call service where customers can receive a range of advice from our Information and Advice Hub staff.
"The platform only allows a maximum of six people in an appointment.
"The system we currently use for group meetings is unable to directly broadcast a meeting to a wider audience, and at the same time limit how participants are able to interact with the meeting.
"This functionality is necessary to meet the strict governance requirements for council meetings.
"We are procuring a new system, which should be in place in the spring, which will enable the public to access online meetings.
"In the meantime, the minutes of all our meetings are publicly available online."
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