Hear all sides: Durham County Council

We, the council tax payers, have just had a substantial increase in our council tax, an increase of 14.8 per cent.

The council is always saying it is short of money, yet it is prepared to spend £174,000 to purchase these computers and another £105,000 to run them.

Are the councillors' families going to use these computers? How do you propose to stop the families from using the computers?

I suppose now all council meetings will be stopped. I don't think so. We will still be footing the bill for the councillors attending meetings. - H Dalby, Durham.

I STRONGLY protest about the news that Durham County Council is to install and maintain computers in councillors' homes. What a monumental waste and misuse of money.

This from a council which made a giant rise in council tax this year, saying it was strapped for cash. A council which is closing residential homes. A council whose roads are badly in need of repair.

Who is going to monitor the use of these computers? Members' families could run up huge Internet and email bills unless a close eye is kept. I, for one, do not wish to pay for other people's Internet enjoyment.

What about councillors who don't have a clue how to use these computers? Will they be sent on courses at tax payers' expense? If it is so important that they have computers to do their work, why do they not buy them themselves out of the allowances they already receive?

I suspect that many schools in the area would be grateful to have their computers upgraded, repaired or replaced rather than have the money spent in the way the council intends. - AL Thompson, Durham.

THE notion of giving computers to councillors has got to be stopped. These councillors get paid allowances of more than £6,920 a year to do their jobs. So if they want a computer, plus accessories, they should pay for them themselves.

Council taxes should only be used for the benefit of the community, not the privileged few.

If they get the computers, will all the taxpayers have the right to go to the councillor's home to use the equipment that they have paid for to contact the council? No. They will have to get their own at their expense. - RL Groves, Howden-le-Wear.

THE fact that Durham County Council is intending to waste almost £175,000 of our money by installing computer equipment in the homes of councillors is surely some kind of sick joke.

I would have thought that most of the councillors would have systems of their own already, and how can they quote an amount as obscene as this?

I have a system at home which has everything that you could ever need, and it only cost around £500. The figures just don't add up. - James Middleton, Wolsingham.

TO be able to converse with the public electronically requires that the public have computers. Unless they are a damn sight luckier than me, they will have had to buy their own computers.

So why should part of my taxes go to provide equipment for councillors who are surely just as able as I am to purchase their own.

I am fully aware that we live in one of the most spendthrift counties in the country but surely this is carrying things a little too far. - E Nelson Darlington.

DURHAM County Council has recently implemented a staggering 14.8 per cent rise in council tax on its long-suffering tax payers, stating that the Government has not given the authority enough money in grants to fulfil its obligations.

Recently, this council sold two care homes at a ridiculously low price. This same council has now decided to offer its 61 councillors a home computer with fax, email and Internet facilities for use in their own homes.

These councillors already have computers in their offices, so why this waste of money? What next, a spin doctor for each councillor?

Labour is doing what it does best - wasting other people's money. - Leslie Tyson, Crook.

I THINK that those responsible for the proposal for 61 councillors to have installed in their homes at tax payers expense the following items: a computer with e-mail and Internet access, a desk and chair, combined fax machine printer and scanner, should be replaced immediately.

If we want computers etc, then we have to pay for them ourselves and so should these so-called duly elected officials. Does this mean that once installed the home e-mail addresses of all 61 councillors become available to all.

I suggest the councillors start doing the sort of things they were elected to do and not to be seen to feather one's own nest with freebies at our expense. - David Lythe, Willington.

HAVING experienced a 14.8 per cent increase in council tax and seeing services cut, I find it inexplicable that the council wants to spend over £170,000, with annual running costs of £105,000, to provide 61 councillors with home computers, printers and furniture to enable them to "work more effectively from home".

The councillors will also continue to be able to claim the £6,000-plus annually for attendance at council meetings and functions. Can these councillors expect to be re-elected for what appears to be a waste of ratepayers' money, when the facilities are already provided in newly refurbished accommodation at County Hall? - Dennis Lowes, Belmont.

YOU quote me (Echo, Apr 26) in support of the County Council decision to roll out the provision of personal IT support to councillors. I am quoted accurately but incompletely.

At the meeting, I also reminded the Cabinet that the Lib Dem Group had voted in February to reduce the council tax increase and that part of our

reduction was to postpone, but only postpone, giving computers to councillors as a mark of the massive extra burden being foisted on the people of County Durham this year. We were defeated by the massed ranks of Labour on that occasion.

Your readers must not get the two issues confused.

Providing the best IT support to councillors is something that the council must do. It will save resources in the long run, if only on the hundreds of tons of paper the council consumes every year. County Durham is already way behind most other councils in Britain in this regard.

The Lib Dems would have put things off a short while, but as the money has been taken from your readers' pockets in this year's budget rise, it seems perverse to say we should not follow though on a policy which must happen soon anyway. - Councillor Nigel Martin, Lib Dem Group Leader, Durham County Council.