LESSONS have been learned after a mockumentary caused controversy within the town council and the community.

At a meeting of Andover Town Council on Wednesday, February 21, councillors debated on how to proceed with its mockumentary plans, including rigorous checks and approval of scripts, before anything could be made and published.

It comes after Cllr Joseph Hughes proposed the idea in September last year, with the intention to humorously showcase the town while also shedding light on its businesses and charities.

He then went ahead and released the film before Christmas, independent of the council. This move triggered a wave of discontent among residents, prompting 16 formal complaints.

At last week’s meeting Cllr Hughes revealed that he is working with more students from Andover College to produce another film.  

He said: “So the project started. We have the students for two weeks and we started on Monday (February 19) and we've been working with four different charities so far and they've learnt a lot, and made me really proud.

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"They engaged well with the groups and it's great to see the creativity and eagerness they had towards it.

Cllr Hughes, along with the work experience students, have been working with Unity, Yellow Brick Road Project, Sporting Mind and Walk, and Talk for Mental Health on the project so far and have received good feedback from both the college and the charities involved.

Cllr Heather Neate said: "From what I've seen so far, and from all the learning that came from the Christmas episode, that Cllr Joseph Hughes is working closely with Andover College and with the four charities gives the council some reassurance over the scrutiny, method, procedure and process of this filming, but what we are not being asked to do at this stage is whether or not we want to publish it in the name of the council. 

"What it does do is assure our Andover College student colleagues will be able to meet their requirements on their work experience as well as gaining a lot of experience themselves in the work environment and it's a wonderful opportunity to be working together with them."

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Councillors discussed several conditions for review, heavily debating on intellectual property rights being signed over to the council for the work completed during the work experience.

Cllr Hughes said that the students had not felt ‘entirely comfortable’ about signing the agreement handing over the rights to their work, suggesting that intellectual property rights sign back over to the students should the council not wish to use the mockumentary videos.

Cllr Steven Hardstaff expressed concerns that if intellectual property rights went back to the students helping to produce the mockumentary, the town council would have no control over the distribution of the video and there would be the potential for a similar incident to happen again in the future.

The council agreed to an amendment to the conditions for review of the mockumentary project, adding that should the video and media not be used by Andover Town Council, the town clerk will discuss which bits of the videos made would be available for use by the students.

The council voted in favour of the amendment.