Resolved:      That Cllr. Fleming be appointed Chairman of the Group for the ensuing Municipal Year.

Resolved:      That Cllr. Mrs Hunter be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Group for the ensuing Municipal Year.

Resolved:      That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Group held on 8 July 2010 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Members were advised that there was no need for them to declare personal or prejudicial interests in the review of IT Allowances as consideration of the Scheme of Members Allowances was specifically exempt from this requirement.

Members who currently possessed computers provided by the Council felt however that they should still declare an interest in this item. Accordingly Councillors Mrs Cook, Mrs Davison, Mrs Hunter and Piper declared a personal interest in agenda item 5, Review of IT Allowances/Provision of Computers for Members, as they currently held computers which had been provided to them by the council. 

Members considered a report which reviewed whether an IT allowance should be added to the current Members’ Allowance Scheme. This issue had been considered by the Joint Independent Remuneration Panel (JIRP) following a request by Officers of Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) in July 2011 and the report included the JIRP’s recommendations. The report explained that laptops had been provided to SDC Members in 2004 under a central government funded scheme whereby funding of £60,000 was secured which equipped all 54 Councillors with a basic laptop computer. However by the time of the May 2011 elections many of the original laptops had become obsolete or required disproportionate support from the IT Department and the central government funding was no longer available.

The accessibility of information by Members had also changed in the intervening years and the Council had developed a simple approach to Members’ access to Council information and communications via a new Members’ Electronic Portal, an extranet which made it possible to have web-based access to the e-mail system and all the necessary information systems and databases. As a consequence Members could access all of the information that they required to perform their duties securely from any internet access point including a home computer.  Coupled with the approximate 23% reduction in IT budgets in recent years this meant that there was little scope for the Council to supply computer equipment for all Members or to continue to provide the level of ongoing support needed.

Members discussed the background to the initiation of the review. It was noted that by the May 2011 elections only 12 Members had been active users of the Council laptops out of the much larger total number allocated. After the elections 8 new laptops had been purchased with remaining money from the original funding and had been allocated to the 8 Members who had responded to an emailed offer to be provided with a laptop. 1 Member had already returned their new laptop. There had been some concern from Members that new laptops were not available for all Members, some Members had obsolete laptops and others none at all which was considered confusing and possibly unfair. In these circumstances it was decided to refer consideration of the matter to the JIRP.

The Chairman welcomed Colin Wilby, the Chairman of the JIRP, to the meeting. Mr Wilby explained that the JIRP had carried out a full review which had included briefings from officers, meetings with Members and research into the practices of other local authorities in terms of provision of IT allowances and computing equipment for Members. Although it had been clear that few Council’s currently provided a specific IT allowance and practice differed widely the Panel had concluded that the use of computer based information and communications was essential for Councillors to be able to fulfil their responsibilities. However the Panel had also recognised that other authorities paid a higher level of basic allowance which could be used by Members to meet their IT requirements  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.