Ipad + tax payers money = ?

[Stoo]

Talk about narrow minded

Let me guess, Lib Dem?

Having had a tory local council and county council for years/decades, and watched them waste vast quantities of cash on projects which don't benefit anyone but themselves, I'd say he had a valid point..

Duck-houses and moats anyone?

[Andeh13]

...and back on topic!


I am amazed they can get away with that. Justifying the costs because this way they can be sent .pdfs to read & take notes/research a problem on the street when stopped by passers by!?

''If it does, and it can replace costly printing, then the council could potentially save £90,000 each year. I have a laptop but it is quite heavy, meaning it is awkward to take to several meetings in a day.

Can someone tell me how £90,000 could be saved by buying 50 Ipads. That's ''saving'' of £1800 per year for each Ipod? The fact they are even considering a 'trial' and have already bought a few to ''test'' is beyond obscene.

/current resident of leicester.

[peterb]

...and back on topic!


I am amazed they can get away with that. Justifying the costs because this way they can be sent .pdfs to read & take notes/research a problem on the street when stopped by passers by!? snip--->

Indeed - they should all be carrying round thick A4 folders of pages of information - preferably hand copied by rows of clerks sitting on high stools at woorden desks.

[Powderhound]

I can't help but feel that they're deluding themselves if they honestly believe that most people care enough about their local councillors to recognise them and stop them in the street. And in the likely event of this happening I don't think most people would be overly offended if the councillor was to say that they couldn't answer the question immediately but that they'd be more than happy to ring back with it later. In fact I'd prefer that given that any research done on an iPad in the street is likely to be cursory at best.

[scaryjim]

Can someone tell me how £90,000 could be saved by buying 50 Ipads.

I think it's 54, in fact (4 have already got them for the trial ). And yes, I probably can: a council is run by having hundreds of meetings a year. Each meeting will produce thousands of pages of paperwork, and all of that has to be circulated round 54 council members. So by buying everyone an iPad, you can save the cost of *millions* of printed sheets each year. Also, you save on maintenance costs as the printers have a significantly reduced duty cycle, and you can probably save on staffing costs as it's much less time consuming to drop a pdf on a network location and let 54 people copy it to their own devices, as compared to having someone create 54 hard copies. I can quite easily believe that those savings could add up to £90k / year.

Which means the ipads could pay for themselves in about 5 months, by my reckoning... not counting the benefits to the councillors in their day to day work - sure they might not get stopped in the street, but they often hold surgeries or attend public functions where they are present as representatives of the council - in those circumstances it will be much easier to have a single electronic device to take notes and, dare I suggest, videprompt their speeches

Of course, the biggest threat has to be that the residents of Leicester will now know that their councillors are all walking around with a £700 iPad in their bags...

[danroyle]

is this really that bad if it saves time and money then go for it.

Sometimes you have to spend money to save money.

[TheAnimus]

Of course, the biggest threat has to be that the residents of Leicester will now know that their councillors are all walking around with a £700 iPad in their bags...

Well as Alan Moore paraphrased:
People should not fear their government. Government should fear their people