Just 30 minutes without power would reduce Liverpool council services' IT infrastructure to a state of meltdown. The council's mainframe currently has no back-up system, and if there's a blackout lasting longer than half-an-hour, every record would be irrevocably lost.

Auditors flagged this oversight last year, The Liverpool Echo reports.

In a report to council members, the executive member for resources, Councillor Chris Curry told the members that "there is no generator backup for power outages and in the event of a power failure the UPS [emergency power system] provides only 30 minutes backup".

The council voted to install some back-up without delay. The project, which is worth £400k, has been handed to Liverpool Direct, the council's joint venture with BT. The work was not put out to competitive tender as council members were concerned that a bidding process would delay a swift solution to the problem.

Work will begin on 1 April, and is expected to take 16 weeks. Existing network equipment will be moved into unused space in the basement of the municipal building, along with the new back-up system. ®