IN theory, a podcast from a council might sound like quite a good idea, in reality, it's a total bore.

At least that was my impression after sitting through half an hour of Cornwall Council's latest bright idea: 'Half an Hour With...' - a thirty-minute podcast that claims to be about: "important developments for Cornwall, new projects and initiatives that are having a positive effect on people's lives and what steps are being taken to tackle Cornwall's challenges."

The podcast's blurb says the series will be talking to people across Cornwall, starting with Cornwall Council cabinet members, starting with portfolio holder for the economy Louis Gardner as the first guest. 

Now, if you were interested in what Gardner thinks about his role within the council, this might be the podcast for you, but are you? Is anybody? Do let us know in the comments!

The first episode is hosted by Katy Driver, a member of Cornwall Council's Comms team, and while there was nothing particularly upsetting about her hosting ability, it did feel like her role was to prompt Cllr Gardner into his next response, as opposed to questioning what he'd said or delving deeper into the subject matter being discussed. 

It's very easy to slate a podcast for centering around topics or discussions that don't appeal to you, so let's talk about the production value.

One of the things that I found most jarring while listening were the sections of dialogue that had clearly been added after the fact. Some, including an interview with Fin Irwin, were fine and made sense during the parts they were added in to.

Others, however, seemingly just added additional information that appeared to have been forgotten during the interview's recording, with one edit adding in a question being asked to Cllr Gardner almost as if to convince listeners it had been asked by the host during the original recording.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with adding in additional information after recording, but, in this case, it seemed to have just been poorly done. 

Overall, this podcast episode struck me as a huge missed opportunity. Cornwall Council could have done something really interesting if they'd put a little more thought into it.

Rather than just platforming their own staff to tell people things that are easily found online, this could have been an opportunity to genuinely engage with the people of Cornwall. Would it have been so hard to invite someone on to chat with Cllr Gardner? Someone who might have offered a bit of a counterbalance to what he was saying?

Maybe this will happen in later episodes, maybe I'm writing this podcast off too soon, but based on what I've heard so far, I don't see any value in this for anyone other than the people who write Cornwall Council's press releases.