Councillor defends £12,000 iPad move

A Shropshire Council cabinet member today defended councillors and staff who have been handed iPads at a cost of £12,000.

Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith, portfolio holder for IT, claimed the devices would help make further savings on top of work carried out with Microsoft, which has already saved £1.2 million.

Mr Taylor-Smith claimed the £300 iPads were fitted with cameras so officials could use Skype to communicate for free.

The move has been taken to make it easier for councillors and staff to be contacted and to make long-term savings, according to Shirehall.

But critics have slammed the spending, claiming ma- ny councillors will be unable to use the tablet computers.

They also pointed out members already have taxpayer-funded laptops and BlackBerry smartphones.

However, Mr Taylor-Smith, who has 40 years' experience of working in the IT industry, today said that equipping officials with iPads was the correct decision.

He said: "The 40 iPads have been given to about 15 councillors and the rest are staff members and group leaders.

"It's running as part of a Microsoft roll-out which has saved £1.2 million already. Anybody who has ever used an iPad will know they are easy to use.

"These have also got built in cameras so they can be used for Skype calls. I was on holiday in America recently and contacted the council using the iPad and it cost me nothing."

Councillor Taylor-Smith said the contracts for the Blackberry phones currently owned by councillors would not be renewed. He said the existing laptops would be sent to parish and town councils.

But critics have claimed the money spent on iPads is insensitive at a time of major cuts to services as well as staff being asked to take a 5.4 per pay cut.

Councillor Taylor-Smith said working from mobile devices would "drastically reduce" the need for printing reports, saving more than £100,000 a year.