A BARMY council was slammed over plans to spend £30,000 on IPADS — in a bid to save PAPER.
Bosses at Cambridge City Council have earmarked £29,400 from their "climate change" budget to buy 42 of the new Apple gadgets.
They claim it will improve their green credentials by helping to get rid of some of the thousands of pages used in meetings every year.
The £250,000 climate change budget was approved by the council in March last year to reduce the carbon footprint of internal projects.
Extravagant
But with the iPad retailing between £499.99 and £699.99 for the 64GB even councillors themselves are calling the plans excessive.
Matthew Sinclair, Research Director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is understandable that the council want to avoid wasting paper, but it is incredible that they think that means providing councillors with flash new Apple iPads at a cost of thousands.
"A small, affordable laptop would do the same job, though it certainly wouldn't be as exciting a perk for the councillors.
"Environmentalism shouldn't be used an excuse for extravagant spending, if councillors want an iPad they can join the queue and buy one themselves."
Labour group leader Cllr Lewis Herbert said that while paper resources needed to be reduced, the iPad would be a waste of funds.
He said: "I do not think we need fancy technology to do our job.
"The cost of replacing paper with iPads would be far more than the gadgets themselves as the council will go through a management contract.
"Technology changes every year so if they lay out cash on a certain product they would probably just have to replace it in two years.
"They have had real trouble with finding a way to spend this £250,000 climate change budget and I do not think they have thought this through."
But council bosses view the iPad as a realistic solution to help improve their carbon footprint.
David Roberts, head of policy and projects at the council, said: "It is definitely a possibility."
Bosses at Cambridge City Council have earmarked £29,400 from their "climate change" budget to buy 42 of the new Apple gadgets.
They claim it will improve their green credentials by helping to get rid of some of the thousands of pages used in meetings every year.
The £250,000 climate change budget was approved by the council in March last year to reduce the carbon footprint of internal projects.
Extravagant
But with the iPad retailing between £499.99 and £699.99 for the 64GB even councillors themselves are calling the plans excessive.
Matthew Sinclair, Research Director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It is understandable that the council want to avoid wasting paper, but it is incredible that they think that means providing councillors with flash new Apple iPads at a cost of thousands.
"A small, affordable laptop would do the same job, though it certainly wouldn't be as exciting a perk for the councillors.
"Environmentalism shouldn't be used an excuse for extravagant spending, if councillors want an iPad they can join the queue and buy one themselves."
Labour group leader Cllr Lewis Herbert said that while paper resources needed to be reduced, the iPad would be a waste of funds.
He said: "I do not think we need fancy technology to do our job.
"The cost of replacing paper with iPads would be far more than the gadgets themselves as the council will go through a management contract.
"Technology changes every year so if they lay out cash on a certain product they would probably just have to replace it in two years.
"They have had real trouble with finding a way to spend this £250,000 climate change budget and I do not think they have thought this through."
But council bosses view the iPad as a realistic solution to help improve their carbon footprint.
David Roberts, head of policy and projects at the council, said: "It is definitely a possibility."
