North Yorkshire County Council provide IT equipment in the form of computers, printers etc. for councillors. They also offer to act as Internet Service Providers, so that councillors do not have to pay any costs at all for internet access etc. In addition to these, they also give an allowance of £462 per annum for running costs.

‘Quite right’ you may say, councillors need to be competent in such as e-mailing, and why should they have to pay for it themselves?

Craven District Council provide a similar system for IT in that they pay councillors £600 p.a. about £12:00 per week to provide their own equipment, line rental and so on.

Again you may say ‘Quite right’ for exactly the same reasons.

Some councillors seem to need both the equipment and the money, in fact 6 councillors who are on both North Yorkshire County Council and Craven District Council appear to have the equipment we pay for, the £462 allowance, AND the £600 allowance - in other words free equipment, and around £90 per month to use it!
Each of those six councillors was e-mailed with the following question:

Dear Councillor:
As a North Yorkshire County Councillor you state that you have received IT facilities from NYCC.
Very good, all our councillors should 'keep up with the times' and they should not have to provide such themselves when performing public services, although of course NYCC councillors have seen their allowances treble over the last 5 years.

Craven District Council also pay an allowance for IT purposes, of £600/annum, and CDC Councillors have seen their allowances increase fivefold over the last 5 years. (*See HERE)
In the light of the above facts, what are your thoughts on receiving that apparent double allowance?

Do you think that perhaps the committee who advised CDC on the IT allowance should take such into account in future years?

Councillor Barrett,  No Response;
Councillor Polly English, No Response;
Councillor Heather,  No Response;
Councillor Ireton,  No Response;
Councillor Wheeler,  No Response;

We have no reasons given for the ‘no response’ offered, although of course the equipment they have been issued with could be faulty.

But no doubt they have three computers, three BT lines, and three Internet fees etc.

We DID obtain one response:

Councillor Heseltine,

“I draw allowances which I believe i am entitled to from both NYCC and CDC.” (Verbatim.)

Should any further responses be forthcoming from the councillors named above, then they will be published on Craven Matters, meanwhile, what do YOU think?