THE “toys for the boys” row over Warrington Borough Council’s decision to buy 24 iPads for a “trial” has flared up again.
Liberal Democrat councillors say Labour has performed a “U-turn” over the devices – but the controlling Labour 
group’s communications chief says he cannot believe the Lib Dems are still trying to defend the purchase.
Earlier in the year, the Liberal Democrat/Conservative administration was criticised by the then Labour opposition for buying iPads.
But at Monday’s meeting of the full council, Lib Dem leader Cllr Ian Marks accused Cllr Hitesh Patel of performing a U-turn on the issue because he would not withdraw the iPads.
He said: “It is clear that Cllr Patel has done a u-turn on this and has belatedly come to the sensible realisation that iPads might just have a valuable cost-effective role in running a large organisation.”
Cllr Patel responded: “I cannot believe you are still trying to defend your decision to buy not one, not two, not even five but 24 iPads for a so called ‘trial’… so let me put this issue to bed once and for all.
“There is clearly benefit to be had in using new technology that reduces the amount of printing, helps the council protect its information and enables a generally more productive workforce, but to date I have seen no evidence that 
you carried out a thorough evaluation of other options before buying the iPads.
“In fact I am still awaiting your personal post-trial evaluation reports and the reports from those of councillors who used the iPads explaining why you think they are represent good use of public money.
“If you would have consulted me I would have demonstrated this tablet laptop which I bought three years ago for about £300. It weighs roughly the same as a bag of sugar, and with the use of a £30 3G-internet dongle you get exactly the same functionality as an iPad for half the price.”
Cllr Patel said he had carried out basic research which indicated there were cheaper alternatives that would deliver the same benefits.
But given that the iPads had been purchased, and would be worth less than £80 each if sold, it would be wasteful to get rid of them.
However, all future purchases of this type of technology would be carefully considered in the light of any forthcoming business case.
He said Cllr Marks should issue an apology for the “folly” of buying the iPads.
Pictured: Cllr Marks and Cllr Patel
12 Comments
If they do decide to sell them off can you put my name down for one. I will happily pay eighty five quid for one.
£90
You would think that the Lib Dems would let this one go now – there are bigger issues to debate, rather than this old story that showed their incompetence!
£100… and Cllr Marks is clearly a rather bored man. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Here we go again. What a waste of money! However, now that they have been bought lets get on to more serious matters affecting the Town. What about the potholes, what about Garnett’s Tower, what about the Planning Investigation, What about the empty shops in the Town Centre, etc…………………….. The LibDem/Con administration were clearly incompetent and the electorate delivered its verdict in May.
…It’s ironic that the LibDems now accuse Cllr Patel of “performing a U-turn”… that’s a phrase most people now associate with the LibDem Party because of U-turns over VAT, tuition fees, etc.
Is this the only thing they could think about in the 8 weeks since the election? Blimey – can’t they see the real issues that affect the people of this town, rather than hot air and tittle tattle from the Town Hall? The iPads are old news – the cash is spent and there you go, maybe they should have checked their value when they were sanctioning the thousands of pounds to buy the bleeding things!
Of the various topics that you have mentioned, Warrington residents are probably only really interested in one of them, potholes. With regards to Garnett’s Tower most people neither know what or where it is, and most will not know much, if anything, about a planning investigation. With regards to your latter point, I think the electorate was delivering its verdict on the coalition government, in particular the Liberal Democrat part of it, rather than the administration in Warrington. Again most people probably couldn’t tell you who their local councillor was / is or indeed who was / is running the council. With regards to iPads, until more copycat alternatives are available, they are expensive for what they are, once prices drop to nearer the £300 mark, they probably will be worth issuing to employees, provided that they then don’t spend all of their time looking at non work related websites.
It is obvious that Cllr Patel knows absolutely nothing about the cost of everyday items (new or second hand)….. if he thinks you can buy a 2nd hand IPad for £80.00 then the man is clearly an un-informed buffoon and should leave the comments to those councillors who do know about these things….. or is that the Labour way? Sell it for £80.00 and then borrow more money to make up the shortfall????
Baz… I’m presuming the point Cllr Patel is trying to make is that because of the sensitive data on council IT equipment, the hard drives/memory etc have to be completely destroyed… which, in the case of an iPad, renders them useless… hence the apparently ridiculously low price being quoted. That being said he could have said this a bit clearer…hence everyone saying I’ll buy a second hand WBC iPad
Jimmy, just do a factory reset on it and that would do the trick…. there is even a website to show you how:…it says: “If you want to delete everything from the iPad before selling it on eBay or if you wish to reset your iPad to the default factory setting, here’re the steps:
Resetting iPad (from the iPad help file)
Reset all settings: Choose General > Reset, then tap Reset All Settings. All your preferences and settings are reset. Information, such as your contacts and calendars, and media, such as your songs and videos, aren’t deleted.
To erase all content and settings, choose General > Reset, then tap “Erase All Content and Settings.” This resets all settings to their original values and erases all your information and media.
If you simply like to reset the Home screen layout to the default setting, choose General > Reset, then tap Reset Home Screen Layout.”…. so simple, even Cllr Patel could do it!
I work in IT security, so I can offer some help here. It all depends on the classification and sensitivity of information that has been stored or processed on the machine. The Government guidelines on sanitisation of IT systems dictate what needs to be done. The general approach (even for low risk data) is hard disk destruction – involving degaussing and/or physical destruction. So Cllr Patel is right that the iPads might be rendered useless, depending on exactly what they have been used for.