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The truths they don't want you to read....

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Council Agendas

It is a major step forward for the agendas and supporting documents to be available electronically, but can someone please make sure that the links actually work.

As far as I can see, not one of the internal links in the most recent sets of agenda actually worked, meaning we are none of the wiser about what the Budget plans actually are; amongst other major items.

BTW, can anyone confirm that all 31 Councillors now have iPads?   Even the IT illiterate ones?

Update: iPads are issued by the Hebridean Housing Partnership to Councillors (and others?) who sit on the Board.  The electronic agendas for the Council has still not been fully implemented some 6 years or so after being approved for immediate implementation.  Agendas can be found here, and the links still aren't working on my computer with Firefox.

25 comments:

j said...

iPads? Seriously?

So where did the money for these come from given the cuts being proposed? OK so it's only £12K on the devices but with the supporting infrastructure needed it all adds up.

I'd love to see the justification for buying those...

Anonymous said...

All the links work for me, angus. You sure you're up to date with software?

j said...

Oh, and I can't find any agendas on the website - care to post some links.

Anonymous said...

iPads for each councillor?!! I find that really hard to believe. Some of them have never - personally - sent an email in their lives and have expressed a desire never to do so.

If it's true, then it begs the question: which councillor will probably achieve the best score on Angry Birds?

Anonymous said...

Let's hope the iPads don't end up on eBay :-)

Anonymous said...

Links work fine for me on Chrome.

Hear-say said...

Perhaps an Agenda item on the next meeting of the Policy & Resources C'ttee should be:
Court of Session: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar vs Scottish Govt. Legal Fees.
I have noted that the initial cost of seeking a legal opinion from an Advocate on the decision to over-rule closure of four island schools is £3000. This is just for starters. Who (or which corporate authority) is going to under-write this expenditure?
If CnES Councillors are pursuing this course, then they can put their hands in their own pockets.
A foolish action, with only one outcome: TEARS (and retribution to follow).
Also, parents, teachers and children who have had their hopes dashed, then raised by Mike Russell's decision ... will now be furious, having to confront all this uncertainty all over again. This is most definitely NOT in the best interests of the welfare and continuing education of all these children.

Anonymous said...

Links don't work on Safari either!

Anonymous said...

11.50

They worked for me on Firefox and for 11.03 on Chrome. Try another browser?

Anonymous said...

11.14

I can only trust that the councillors have regard to the past. The Council's record on judicial review is ......not good.

Anonymous said...

best score on Angry Birds?

surely Cllr Campbell is ahead on that already ;-)

Anonymous said...

best score on Angry Birds?

surely Cllr Campbell is ahead on that already ;-)

Surely that must be Morag Munro, she must be one Angry Bird!

Anonymous said...

What's the connection with HHP? Why are they providing the Councillors with iPads? Perhaps it's obvious but please enlighten me.

Anonymous said...

The ipads will pay for themselves after less than a year due to a reduction in printing costs.

Anonymous said...

angus

Go to the third item - the budget working papers. (For all the good it will do you - obfuscation and inadequate information appears to be the dish of the day.)

Angus said...

The ipads will pay for themselves after less than a year due to a reduction in printing costs.

Absolutely correct that they will. But only if full electronic agendas become a reality.

Otherwise it is doubling the cost.

Anonymous said...

PS - some of the documentation is 'to follow' and is not yet available.

Anonymous said...

We demand more IT literate representatives then baulk at the cost of doing this. We can't have it both ways.

Anonymous said...

this stuff should be online anyway as part of Comhairle transparency

j said...

I've heard a lot of people saying that iPads will save a lot in printing costs. I spent 2-3 years working on content management systems and a couple of observations
1. Printing costs generally go up, I never saw one instance where costs went down.
2. The cost of the iPads isn't the major cost it's the supporting infrastructure that's required - this is rarely costed.

Anonymous said...

this is off topic but perhaps any Garlikcy readers or yourself may be interested: Gaelic jobs but apply in English only

http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/8774/New_Gaelic_jobs_85_apply_in_English.html

Anonymous said...

The Comhairle's website (www.cne-siar.gov.uk) seems to be down.

Part of the cuts agenda?

Anonymous said...

11.02

Nope. The website's up and running.

Anonymous said...

I was getting:

The server at www.cne-siar.gov.uk is taking too long to respond.

I thought it quite apt - especially when I started playing around with the names of different departments, etc.

Anonymous said...

Off topic by not by a million miles:

Angus, would you enable the mobile version of the site please, for those of us on wee devices:

Go to Blogger in Draft (http://draft.blogger.com/) - Settings - Email & Mobile - Show mobile template - Yes, On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template. - Save Settings.

Tx.