Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/08/03/leicester_city_councillors_ipad/
Leicester City councillors eye up iPad to save £90k a year
Council says a 'techy-type' person did the maths
Posted in Personal Tech, 3rd August 2010 11:37 GMT
A quartet of Leicester City councillors are currently trialling Apple’s iPad, and if successful the fondle slab could be issued to 50 other council members.
But a council spokeswoman told The Register this morning that a report in today’s Daily Mail, which made the claims, was inaccurate.
She then went on to explain that only four Leicester City councillors had been given iPads as part of an “efficiency” test.
“There are no definite plans [to roll out the iPad to other councillors], but there is potential because it could save £90,000 a year,” she said.
Apparently that’s how much the council could reel back by using the iPad instead of printing out reams and reams of cabinet and committee reports.
We then reasonably asked the spokeswoman to explain where the £90k figure had come from.
“One of the information techy-type people worked it out,” she said.
Similarly, councillor Sarah Russell - Labour rep for the Westcotes ward - told the Daily Mail that: “We’re trying out the iPad to see whether it improves the way we work as councillors. If it does, and can replace costly printing, the council could save £90,000 each year.”
Presumably the aforementioned techy-type person factored in the cost of issuing 54 iPads to councillors in the city, which would be somewhere between £23,000 and £37,000 depending on the spec of the device.
Last month Leicester Council announced big savings by laying off 1,000 people - one in seven council staff.
But let's not be too hard on the city's councillors. Perhaps they are simply keen on having a paperless office because surely, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with them wanting to lovingly caress their very own Jobsian gadget, does it? ®