COUNCIL bosses have been slammed after a technical glitch hit a live stream of a meeting to decide two huge planning applications in the North Coast and Cumbrae.

A loss of sound hit the webcast of North Ayrshire Council's planning committee on Wednesday - just as a decision was about to be made on controversial plans to build a solar farm on Cumbrae.

Cumbrae residents and other observers were initially left in the dark about the outcome after the feed went offline.

And later in the meeting, only the first few minutes of XLCC's application to set up a cable manufacturing plant at Hunterston could be heard before the livestream went down for a second time.

The feed dropped just as a Fairlie Community Council spokesperson was about to explain to the committee why it has objected to the multi-million-pound plans.

READ MORE: Cumbrae solar farm bid rejected after huge protests from island residents

The announcement on the solar farm bid's rejection was made for a second time later in the meeting once the technical fault became apparent - only for the feed to break down again before the XLCC plans were considered and approved.

Independent North Coast councillor Ian Murdoch, who is a member of the committee, told the News that he was upset and 'disillusioned' by the continual breaking in the feed.

Cllr Murdoch said: "It was deeply disappointing that two of the most important planning decisions affecting Hunterston and Millport saw technical glitches happening to the live feed.

"I feel very disillusioned about this, as it is not the first time it has happened.

READ MORE: Ayrshire set for '900 jobs' boost as Hunterston cable plant gets green light

"The solar farm was the biggest planning decision to happen on Cumbrae, while the XLCC development for Hunterston has huge repercussions - and even though recordings of the meeting went up later, there were still huge chunks missing."

A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council said: “We are aware of a technical issue during the live broadcast of the planning committee meeting on May 24 and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused viewers.

“We launched an immediate investigation into the cause of the issue and it became clear that the broadband connection speed dropped significantly during the livestream.

“While this was an unforeseen issue which was outwith our control, we have raised the matter with our broadband suppliers with a view to finding a long-term solution as soon as possible."