Swansea councillors will have to buy their own computers rather than using authority- provided ones, it has been decided.Excellent cost-cutting idea!
At present members can use council-provided computers and printers to help them in their work — though most choose to buy their own.Hurrah! About damn time!
Now the council's cabinet has decided that from May 2012 the "opt-in" scheme will be scrapped, and all members will have to buy their own.
OK, it may be only one small perk, but I really don’t see why they should get the use of taxpayer-funded machines meant for council-workers.
Oh. Wait:
Councillors will receive an IT grant of £1,008 in year one, then payments of £200 per year for the next three years — however no receipts will be required, and the payments will be made automatically.*weeps*
Is there no stopping them? I'm with Steve Shark - bring on the piano wire!
8 comments:
It would be better methinks if
parish pump interferers went the same way as free PCs
Their presence in a society where the voice of the ordinary is not heeded,is but a burden on our shoulders and our wallets.
Lamentable ,fulltime nannies conjuring up endless new restrictions ,regulations and
by-laws to accelerate the demise of liberty,totally ridiculous
Get shut
Oppressed Citizen
Realistically, with memos and file information distributed via email and on the council's own website, a computer goes with the post of councillor.
The reason we should be supplying them is so we can demand them back when they leave office and go through them carefully.
I see no reason we should be paying for the councillors' adult entertainment.
Guess what I do for a living Julia?
Yup, I'm the friendly neighbourhood computer geezer. This of course means having computers. Guess who pays for them? The last time anyone else bought me a computer it was 1983 and it was a Speccy and that was my Dad who bought it. Well, I was ten so didn't exactly have a huge income. Christ on my pocket money I'd have time to save for an Amiga!
I did by the way! 4096 colours on screen! It were emotional.
No problem with Councillors having access to a "personal" computer .. after all, one wouldn't expect Firefighters to provide their own ladders etc ..
But they should remain property of the Council, be issued against signature and re-claimed when that person is no longer a Councillor ..
Even if there was a need to replace the hard drives for each new user, the costs would be less than those quoted ..
I managed to buy new Desktop & Laptop computers for less than £800.00 ...
So... they are choosing their own computers. We're still paying for them.
"The reason we should be supplying them is so we can demand them back when they leave office and go through them carefully."
I like that idea... ;)
"4096 colours on screen! It were emotional."
Of all the things I get nostalgic for, Eighties PCs aren't it!
"So... they are choosing their own computers. We're still paying for them."
Well, why not? We're paying for everything else...
A machine fit for purpose (email, basic web browsing, word processing) should run about £250-300. A grand will get you a lot more machine than is justified. If it can run any game more demanding than the Google Chrome version of Angry Birds it is over-specced.
Indeed! Small netbooks would do them perfectly well.
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