Cambridgeshire City Council under fire for iPad proposal - Update

Posted by Jon Wilcox on Tue, 09/02/2010 - 16:59
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Apple’s iPad tablet was this week said to have attracted the attention of Cambridge City Council, which is looking to spend between £14,000 and £30,000 to purchase 46 of the devices, in a bid to enhance its green credentials.

The council, which runs a green ‘Cambridge Sustainable City’ initiative, was rumoured to want to procure the devices by dipping into the £250,000 climate change fund, paid for by taxpayers.
 
"It is definitely a possibility,” said David Roberts, head of policy and projects at the council, in a statement to local newspaper, Cambridge News. “Some of the council agendas can by 1,300 pages long – that is a waste of trees, cost and carbon.”
 
"What is being looked at is the financial and carbon benefits in using electronic gadgets. It would be a relatively small amount in cost and at least one of our councillors already has a version of it." 
 
A flood of comments in opposition to the Opposition to the proposal appeared on the local newspaper’s website. However, negativity towards the suggestion hasn’t been limited to taxpayer groups and Cambridge residents. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Labour group leader Cllr Lewis Herbert acknowledged that whilst the council needed to reduce the amount of paper it used, the purchase of the iPads would be a waste of funds.
 
“I do not think we need fancy technology to do our job,” Herbert commented. “The cost of replacing paper with iPads would be far more than the gadgets themselves as the council will go through a management contract.”
 
“Technology changes every year so if they lay out cash on a certain product they would probably just have to replace it in two years. They have had real trouble with finding a way to spend this £250,000 climate change budget and I do not think they have thought this through.”
 
UPDATE Following the reports in both the local and national press, Cambridge City Council has today explicitly denied claims it was looking to procure iPads. In a statement on its website, the council said, “Proposals for addressing Councillor ICT requirements are due to be submitted to Cambridge City Council Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 29 March 2010.
 
“One option to be addressed by these proposals is the use of notebook and tablet devices as a way to reduce paper, printing and waste disposal costs associated with committee reports,” the statement continued. “The Apple iPad is not being considered for this purpose.”