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Scarborough Council cuts 37 but buys iPads for all its councillors
A CASH-strapped council has defended its decision to provide iPads for all its members while cutting more than £2 million from its budget and shedding staff.
The tablet computers will be bought for all 50 councillors at Scarborough Borough Council, North Yorkshire. Only eight councillors rejected the idea in a vote.
The move was rubber stamped at a meeting yesterday when the council agreed a new budget for the year, with £2.2 million in savings and 37 jobs being axed.
The majority of the jobs will be shed through vacant posts not being filled.
Council leader Tom Fox said introducing the iPads will save the council £53,000 a year through reduced printing, postage and circulation costs for council documents, and through replacing old laptops with the cheaper tablet computers.
Mr Fox said: “This isn’t about a cost rise, this is about a cost saving.
“Out of £2.2 million pounds in savings in the budget, £53,000 is savings related to having iPads.
“What I cannot understand it why people cannot evaluate between the saving made and if it is an expense. I’m finding it very hard to get my head around.”
The latest Apple iPad costs between £399 and £659 but a bulk order from the council will mean they will cost £160 each.
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Sunday 20 May 2012
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Tim Thorne
Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 01:29 PMThe Borough Council acts in a curious manner sometimes. There are some factors that complicate this decision. The Councillors already have laptops provided by the tax payers of the Borough. Councillor usage is generally reading or responding to email and reading a few documents. The laptops have a few years left in them yet. The cost of the mailing the documents is high because of the Council leader, Tom Fox. A number of documents have been leaked to the press in recent years. Fox wanted this stopped, so the Council bought and used expensive document watermarking technology. If a document finds it way into the public domain and back into the hands of the Council, they can use the technology to find out which Councillor leaked the document. The iPads are essentially a closed environment. The build of the iPads will be such that it makes it as difficult as possible for Councillors to transfer of documents off the iPads. Essentially this decision is more about Data Security and spending the allocated IT budget fully than saving money from the public purse. Why? Because there are other steps the Council can take to reduce costs. They could turn off the document water marking technology. The Councillors already a 'pigeon hole' (remember them?) at the Town Hall. They could print the documents and leave them in the 'pigeonhole' as the Councillors are always in and out of the Town Hall. Or they could utilise the Laptops for the reason they were bought. None of these cheaper options were ever considered seriously. Use of the Internet costs the Councillors nothing as the tax payer already reimburses them for any outlay. Sometimes the tax payer reimburses them twice for the same connection. Councillor Fox and his wife both claimed the maximum allowance for a broadband connection at an address they share for the whole of the last Council term, four years. He's a bit touchy about the whole subject and has thus far declined to comment. Good job he has friends on the relevant committees to nullify such genuine complaints about the abuse of power. Pay back our money Mr Fox.
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