Agenda item

1.

Question from Councillor Tim Harman to Cabinet Member Corporate Services, Councillor Jon Walklett

Will the Cabinet Member include in his deliberations with Forest of Dean District Council concerning Members IT facilities, a consideration of the far superior services provided by the County Council to its Members?

Response from Cabinet Member

In February 2013, the council agreed £1.3m of funding for the ICT infrastructure upgrade strategy. The sequence for this investment is firstly to bring our core systems up to date which will then provide the platform for supporting iPad’s, iPhones, wifi and more resilient remote access.

We are aware of the ICT provision provided by Gloucestershire County council and members at the FOD already use similar technologies.

It is our intention to provide the same level of member ICT support here as soon as is possible.

In a supplementary question, Councillor Harman asked for a reminder on why the Forest of Dean had been chosen as the council's ICT partner.

The Cabinet Member advised that the original list of 11 options had been narrowed down to 3. These were to continue with the current service, outsource to a commercial organisation or share the service with another council or councils. The Forest of Dean had been through a similar process and had some of the most go-ahead systems in the county and therefore were in a place where this council aspired to be. The link with the Forest meant that ICT resources, including the ICT manager, were shared across the two councils.   He hoped that this would provide a potential basis for expanding the service in future to other GO partners. 

2.

Question from Councillor Rob Garnham to Cabinet Member Corporate Services, Councillor Jon Walklett

Does the Cabinet Member agree with me that there are serious and deep rooted problems with the ability of this Council to provide a reliable IT service both to members of the public and to Councillors.  Can the Cabinet Member reassure this Council that his administration is tackling this situation as a matter of urgency and that the resources needed to fix the problems will be provided?

Response from Cabinet Member

The problems we are currently experiencing are the result of lack in investment in ICT. This was identified and addressed in the Infrastructure upgrade strategy which formed part of the work undertaken in creating the shared ICT service between the CBC and Forest of Dean District Councils.

The £1.3m investment programme will address this lack of investment in both ICT Staff and infrastructure and will bring our ICT infrastructure and systems up to date so that we can provide a reliable, resilient and more business focused service to both members and officers.

As a result of recent problems we are looking to accelerate elements of this programme to implement improvements sooner and deliver some quick fixes.

In a supplementary question, Councillor Garnham asked the Cabinet Member whether he considered it satisfactory that one member has to catch a bus into the municipal offices to enable her to read her e-mails and that some councillors still had council provided laptops whilst others did not have this facility.

In response, the Cabinet Member agreed that this was an appalling situation. He reminded members that a collective decision had been made regarding the provision of laptops in May 2012. It was considered that replenishing laptops was unviable and that facilities would be available for members to access council systems using their own equipment. The option of bringing forward a portion of their members’ allowance was available to any member who wished to purchase new equipment. He acknowledged that all members were currently very frustrated with the Citrix service but steps were being taken to address this as part of the improvements to the ICT infrastructure. This 3 year project was started in February with a budget of £1.3 M and it was now only day 85. On that basis it would be premature to give any dates but he encouraged members to attend the ICT member seminar next week so they could get a clearer picture of what was being planned. In the mean time he would be happy to give a bimonthly update to members either verbally or in writing or to the O&S committee.