Councillors to get iPads.
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My first response was why should they be provided with a free IPad when they are amply remunerated for being a Councillor. However if they receive all council documents and communications via the device and thereby reduce the postage bill to nil, then perhaps it will be cost effective. There should be absolutely no need to buy extra devices for “those who forget to bring them.” We are talking about our elected representatives not children!
waste of money for a start either the kindle fire hd or the google nexus 7 is less than half the price and i can’t think of one thing that can’t be done on either of those machines that can’t be done on an ipad.
So hypothesising that the lifetime of the each councillors ipad (before they buy another one) will be three years. so postage and printing would be a little less than 2 quid a week (300/3 years=100 quid a year then 100/52 weeks) That’s three to 5 letters a week to be cost effective.
There would also be an electricity charge which Councillors could now claim as expenses.
Of course it’s not just the cost of the ipad… it’s also the insurance, security features, internet costs, cloud costs, app costs and various ‘training’ courses that they will have to do.
App costs are also cheaper on android tablets like kindle fire hd… e.g. lots of stuff for free.
Finally ipads are not green, they may have a lifetime carbon footprint of about 150 g of CO2 (about the same CO2 as 1,000 miles on a passenger jet per passenger) but the marketing policy means that the lifetime cycle is very very short so it’s going to be a 150g every few years never mind the extra carbon footprint for training, cloud server costs, etc.
What happened to all the laptops they were given- ah yes most couldn’t use them and some were lost. It would be interesting to see how much the cost of additional training would be for an authority that hasn’t any Macs.
@NJones 2121 wrote:
What happened to all the laptops they were given- ah yes most couldn’t use them and some were lost. It would be interesting to see how much the cost of additional training would be for an authority that hasn’t any Macs.
They should have mac shouldn’t they? They can’t do all their marketing literature via consultancy and design agency firms can they?
They’d need a mac in the planning department too.
@thewayneinspain 2120 wrote:
Of course it’s not just the cost of the ipad… it’s also the insurance, security features, internet costs, cloud costs, app costs and various ‘training’ courses that they will have to do.
App costs gets me thinking… iPads are usually hooked up to a single apple account, which has a payment card attached.
Will each iPad have a central account, or, be per councillor.
If the latter then using a replacement one when forgotten will be pointless, but if the former could raise a bill in app use!
Or, if there is a ban on paid apps it reduces the functionality somewhat!!
It would be worth asking when they will be “sold off” – apparently (and I cant confirm this) the council like to hold sales of IT tech or “give it away” to employees once it’s out of date. would be nice to pick up a used laptop for peanuts, however this public property is never that public
Perhaps the Council will pre load each IPad with essential Apps before they are allocated to individual Councillors. Any other additions would then be at the Councillor’s personal expense. Otherwise the costs could be endless.
I can see the council chamber now.. All the councillors playing angry birds!! What ever will the council think of next?
@thewayneinspain 2128 wrote:
They should have mac shouldn’t they? They can’t do all their marketing literature via consultancy and design agency firms can they?
They’d need a mac in the planning department too.
Marketing literature is often done by the secretaries. I’d be impressed if a Mac ever got into any council office; apart from some schools.
@angryShopper 2133 wrote:
It would be worth asking when they will be “sold off” – apparently (and I cant confirm this) the council like to hold sales of IT tech or “give it away” to employees once it’s out of date. would be nice to pick up a used laptop for peanuts, however this public property is never that public
They definitely do not! All the kit gets stored in the basement of the Guildhall building until a disposal company collects it. Some of the better kit gets given to schools.
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