Councils hit by cuts splash out on iPads
HARD-UP councils overseeing multi-million pound budget cuts have been criticised for spending tens of thousands of pounds on iPads and tablet computers.
Three authorities in the region have all stocked up on the premium gadgets and monthly data plans to allow them to connect to the internet.
Critics say officers and councillors already have access to laptops and office computers and should pay for their own gadgets.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which is cutting £24 million this year, has spent more than £29,000 on 110 iPads.
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The council has so far failed to issue them to any of its staff or councillors but said it is planning to allocate some of them to schools and children's centres to aid learning.
Staffordshire County Council has spent almost £17,000 on iPads and tablet computers for directors and cabinet members amid a cuts programme designed to save £120 million in four years.
Cheshire East has spent £9,900 on the gadgets, including 12 iPads, and owns 320 £1,000 tablet laptops which are used by social care teams and senior managers.
City councillor Dave Conway, leader of the opposition City Independents, said: "After cutting the bus service for pensioners and blind people, I think they need to get their priorities straight.
"Every single officer sits in front of a computer while they are at work and they've already got laptops. It's ridiculous."
Student Luke Allen, aged 22, of Stafford, said: "It doesn't look very good to be giving councillors a trendy gadget that most of their constituents can't afford.
"They're great little devices but it's not what I'd call essential spending. They don't really do anything a laptop can't do and most people I know use them for playing games."
City councillor Olwen Hamer, cabinet member for transformation, said: "The city council has purchased 110 new iPads, at a cost of £265 each.
"A 21st century council needs 21st century technology and we are utilising the various options available to us, including the iPads and social media outlets, to make the city council a more efficient communicator, while also striving to create a value for money service. They will be distributed across a number of areas, including children's centres and schools, to increase parental involvement with child learning at an early age."
Councillor Wesley Fitzgerald, leader of Cheshire East Council, said: "So far, we have identified that this technology is aiding individuals in many aspects of their work. They can access important files and agendas on the move and respond quickly to requests being just some examples.
"More importantly, we are saving money by significantly reducing the amount of printed documents required, which can amount to thousands of pieces of paper each week."
Senior Staffordshire County Councillor Mike Maryon, said: "The great thing about iPads is not only are they beneficial in saving money in terms of printing costs, but they are also very efficient when it comes to searching for words in detailed council documents. We should have introduced them years ago."
Web designer Matt Burke, of Bankeyfields Residents' Association, added: "Any good use of technology is going to benefit everybody. In terms of emails, it will allow councillors to deal with their correspondence quickly so they have no excuses."
What do you think?
Comments
by I_Norris
Friday, May 18 2012, 7:32AM
“Stoke Council have just released this Press Release
"Stoke-on-Trent City Council is rolling out the technology, after securing funding to buy the touchscreen devices from the Department for Education's Trailling New Approaches for Free Education programme last year."
http://tinyurl.com/7e5x5j4
If the 110 ipads were funded from Department for Education's Trailling New Approaches for Free Education, would councillor be entitled to one?
as for the funding a quick search
Was to encourage take up of free education
Local authorities were invited to bid for additional funding in 2011-12 to trial new approaches to a) expanding free early years education for disadvantaged two-year-olds; and b) to exploring options for allowing parents greater flexibility to use their early education entitlement.
Stoke on Trent was awarded £383,864 to "Range of measures to improve the quality of provision for two-year-olds as identified during the previous pilot stage – for example challenging settings to create an environment more conducive to the development of children at that age."
Are ipads suitable for two year olds? The bid would be interesting to read have you got a copy Cllr Reynolds are can you make it available?”
by mole10
Monday, May 14 2012, 10:18AM
“V2UnbGwgc2VlIHdobydzIHRoZSBjbGV2ZXIgb25lLg0KSSdtIGdvaW5nIHRvIGVuY29kZSB1c2luZyB0aGUgZW5pZ21hIHN5c3RlbS4NClRoZW4gd2UnbGwgc2VlIHdobydzIHRoZSBjbGV2ZXIgb25lLg0K”
by Mr_Jingles
Sunday, May 13 2012, 5:28PM
“QWxsIHRoaXMgYmluYXJ5IHJ1YmJpc2ggc291bmRzIGNvbmZ1c2luZyB0byBtZSB0aGluayBJIHdpbGwgc3RpY2sgdG8gcGxhaW4gRW5nbGlzaCBmcm9tIG5vdyBvbiBsb2wNCg==”
by begorrah
Sunday, May 13 2012, 12:33PM
“Enabling staff to use less paper? What's the betting they print off the emails anyway! How many times have we read/heard in the news about equipment going AWOL from vehicles or being left on trains? If these people want the latest flash gear, buy it yourself. I'm sure that the schools/childrens centres (the one's that have escaped the cost cutting axe) would be grateful for a modern laptop or two, at half the cost of the ipads. As for searching for words in a council document, all platforms have this ability. C'mon guys, 'fess up - you just want the shiny new toys 'cos they're cool. Trouble is, in 6 months they will no longer be cool and there will be an updated version on the market ... Welcome to the world of addiction!”
by E_D_Wivens
Sunday, May 13 2012, 10:23AM
“Ah don' need no steenkeen' converter to convert binary, I can do it in my head.
bGlrZSBJIHNhaWQgaXRzIG9ubHkgY2xldmVyIGlmIHlvdSBjYW4gZG8gaXQgZnJvbSBiaW5hcnkg
dG8gaGV4IHRvIGJhc2UgNjQ=”
by Mr_Jingles
Saturday, May 12 2012, 10:56PM
“@E_D_Wivens
To decipher binary you need to google - binary converter (ASCII Chart)
0111010001101111001000000110010001100101011000110110100101110000011010000110010101110010001000000110001001101001011011100110000101110010011110010010000001111001011011110111010100100000011011100110010101100101011001000010000001110100011011110010000001100111011011110110111101100111011011000110010100100000001011010010000001100010011010010110111001100001011100100111100100100000011000110110111101101110011101100110010101110010011101000110010101110010001000000010000000101000010000010101001101000011010010010100100100100000010000110110100001100001011100100111010000101001”
by steve_stoke
Saturday, May 12 2012, 9:51PM
“An absolute mick take. They should all be taken back.”
by E_D_Wivens
Saturday, May 12 2012, 4:28PM
“Anyone can do binary, Alberus chap; it's only clever if someone can do it in hexadecimal or base64.
Many of you seem surprised about this story, but I'm not. It's been going on for years. I used to do a lot of work for councils and health authorities around the country back in the dayand even going back ten years, the middle and top-ranking staff were indulging in unecessary pdas, latest laptops, and other flash tech kit whilst making bland excuses and cutting front-line services. If one got something new and flashy, they all had to have one (like children they were) and you wouldn't believe the amount of money that gets wasted on other things, like catering, gyms and the like. One public institution in Staffordshire had a budget of £10K a week (really) to spend on lunch time catering so that staff would go to team pep-talk meetings, and the tables were laden down with quality food, most of which got wasted whilst patients were being reported as starving in hospitals. I was horrified, I reported it to the then local MP.
Ironically public sector staff are the worst for looking after these expensive bits of kit; they drop them, break them, lose them, spill drinks on them, let their kids use them, and then expect their IT depts to get them new ones right away. It's no surprise that it's always councils/NHS/government employees who are in the news for data security breaches after losing equipment. They're hopeless. Expect several of these ipads to be appearing on the local black market after the idiots leave them in the pubs or wine bars, and it'll be your private data that's on there.”
by Alberus
Saturday, May 12 2012, 3:55PM
“Now I've seen everything. Here we have guys communicating in binary code. Gosh I wish we lesser mortals were able to decipher it! This is going to throw the automatic censoring thingy into confusion for a start, to say nothing about boring the pants off us thickos. We now enter a new era on the Sentinel website. I fear for the future. What will David Elkes have to say?”
by cornwall11
Friday, May 11 2012, 10:24PM
“Luke Allan said most of the people he knows use i pads for playing games,should be ideal for our councilors the're playing games all the time.”