WEB watchers could soon be clicking on live to Eastleigh council debates thanks to a demand from Whitehall to meet a target of getting electronic government by 2005.

Members of Eastleigh's executive cabinet were told the council had an end-of-the-month deadline to submit a statement about how it intended to have 100 per cent electronic service capability by the target date.

Deputy chief executive and head of IT services Tom Calverley said he believed the bill for implementing local e-government would be more than £1m but said: "If we get half from the government we will be able to do it."

An information and communications technology strategy has been drawn up and one of Eastleigh's "visions" is to broadcast meetings of the council, the executive and area committees live on the web.

Councillor George Fraser questioned how many people would want to watch meetings live.

But borough chief executive Chris Tapp asked: "How many people in Chandler's Ford might have tuned into the Waitrose debate?"

He added that there might be significant high-profile items that people who wouldn't necessarily want to turn out and go to meetings would be interested in.