THE FORMER leader of the council has blasted a trial scheme which sees councillors being called fortnightly to check their iPads are working.
The three-month trial at Redditch Borough Council sees a call made by IT officers to each of the 29 members once every two weeks to query whether they are having any issues with the equipment, which has now been rolled out across the council.
But Coun Carole Gandy said if councillors were not ‘bright enough’ to call IT themselves if they had any problems with their iPads they should not be on the council.
She said after receiving a call while she was on holiday in Africa she had requested to be taken off the list.
Speaking at a full council meeting on Monday (December 8), Coun Gandy said: “What next, are housing officers going to call council tenants every two weeks to see if they have got any problems with their council housing?
“Is my GP going to call me every fortnight to see if I’m ill?”
A council spokeswoman said the trial was agreed at the last member support steering group, with the aim of identifying any common issues which could be resolved through extra training.
“This is just a trial which will be reviewed at the next meeting. IT are logging the amount of success, for example councillors asking for help or being glad of the phone call, or non-success for example them asking to be taken off the list.
“Coun Gandy has been taken off the list as she requested. Whether the trial continues will be determined at the next meeting by reviewing the data collected. The only ‘cost’ of this trial is officer time which is minimal.”
