DURHAM County Council is to spend more than £170,000 on computers for councillors in their own homes.

All 61 members of the Labour-run authority will be offered a computer with e-mail and intranet and internet access along with a desk and chair and combined fax machine, printer and scanner.

The council estimates that the scheme will cost £174,175 to set up and £104,635 a year to run.

The decision follows a 14.8 per cent hike in the portion - the largest part - of the council tax bill that goes to County Hall.

Some councillors are worried about how they will justify the scheme to already irate voters but others say that the council has to keep up with the communications revolution.

The Government is pressing councils up and down the country to embrace new technology as much as they can.

Last year the Audit Commission's Best Value Inspection Team gave the council's IT service a one-star rating, saying it was unlikely to improve.

Councillors already have computers in their offices at County Hall but the council believes the new scheme will enable them to work effectively and efficiently from home - particularly important for members who also have jobs - and help to reduce the tonnes of paper used each year.

But Alan Fenwick, Labour councillor for Dawdon, told the council's cabinet: "I know there will be some controversy in the papers - should we be spending money on this at all?

"I think I need a computer and I want one but how am I going to explain to people we are spending this when we have put the council tax up by 14.8 per cent?

"I think the expenditure for this is way out of order.''

Liberal Democrat leader Nigel Martin, who in the run-up to the setting of the council tax proposed a phasing-in of the scheme to cut costs, said: "We have to say to the public that it is in their interests in order for members to represent them effectively.

"I find it more effective to communicate with officers and get information by electronic means than by picking up the telephone.''

Cabinet member Christine Smith said: "We are encouraging the public to be more computer literate and we need to be able to converse with the public ourselves electronically.

"It helps make local government more accessible to the public.