Six councillors ‘make a financial contribution’ to their Council iPads

Wrexham Council have apologised to an individual who placed an Freedom of Information request enquiring how many councillors ‘make a financial contribution towards their iPads’.

Yesterday we were forwarded a copy of an FOI response dated February 26th to a query that asked how many councillors have iPads provided by Wrexham Council, and how many councillors make a financial contribution towards their iPad.

The reply initially stated all councillors have been provided with the devices, and five contribute to the cost.

The person also asked for a list of Councillors and their current renumeration, which was answered with various web links to already public information here on the Council’s site.

Yesterday we tweeted the below:

FOI (not from us) reply from Feb has just landed in our inbox – five Wrexham Cllrs make financial contribution towards iPad cost – Cllr pay info is published on https://t.co/uJk7Yf9AQG pic.twitter.com/Jyu0PP4q3l

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) March 12, 2018

This prompted a reply from Plaid Cymru councillor Marc Jones pointing out the three Plaid Cymru councillors made a contribution:

Three of the @wrexhamcbc councillors are @PlaidWrecsam – @GwenfairJones1 @CarrieAHarper @marcvjones. No idea about the other two. https://t.co/XwkDft3yDY

— marc jones (@marcvjones) March 12, 2018

We are told eyebrows were then raised by three other councillors who believed they were also contributing. Wrexham.com deployed a gif of Columbo and various other means to discover the faulty maths, however the reader who first got in touch forwarded another email from Wrexham Council that read:

“With reference to our previous response below, please find attached a revised response regarding how many Councillors have contributed financially to their iPads. I apologise for the incorrect information being sent to you.”

The response to the FOI remained the same, aside from the number of councillors contributing going from five to six.

We are told Councillors Andrew Atkinson, Debbie Wallice and Russell Gilmartin – all of the Conservative grouping – are the other three contributing.

There is no indication to the level of contribution, and it is entirely possible that others could make a ‘lump sum’ style contribution at the end of the financial year, or as other councillors have done before make various charitable donations in lieu.

The question of iPads became a election topic last year, with Plaid Cymru pledging they would ‘not waste public money on iPads‘ if elected.

Cllr Atkinson also spoke in favour of councillors paying for their own devices at a meeting where it emerged £1,400 was being spent on cases for the Apple devices, pointing out that councillors should take a trip to a local discount shop to buy their own for ‘a few quid’.