Shropshire Council iPad scheme 'will save millions'

A controversial pilot scheme to equip councillors and officials with iPads worth a total of £12,000 is to be rolled out and will save Shropshire Council millions of pounds a year, it was claimed today.

Council chiefs say the scheme, which has seen 40 members of staff including a number of councillors trial the online technology, is already proving successful in saving time and boosting productivity.

The £300 iPads are fitted with cameras and apps which enable officials to use Skype and communicate for free, work remotely on patch and interact with council services around the clock.

The gadgets also allow councillors to post reports from meetings online.

And it is claimed working from mobile devices will also drastically reduce the need for printing and posting out official reports, saving Shropshire Council a minimum of £100,000 a year.

Currently the authority's IT annual budget is £12 million, but switching to new technology could save at least 20 per cent of this sum, council leaders said.