PLANS to spend almost £2million on replacing Blackburn with Darwen Council staff laptops have been labelled irresponsible.

The council’s executive board is expected to approve the £1.875m plan when it meets next week, with cash to be drawn from the authority’s earmarked ICT capital reserve fund across 2018/19 and 2019/20.

But Conservative group deputy leader Cllr Denise Gee said it was an example of the controlling Labour group’s failure to plan properly.

She said: “I understand that technology changes very quickly and it can be difficult to keep up, but it is about making the right choices in the first place with a sustainable plan.

“These devices are not that old. It’s another failing by this Labour-led council at the expense of taxpayers. When things are tight this sort of spending is not on.

“The Labour group needs to do their jobs better in the first place to prevent this kind of spending.”

The project is set to begin in September and would see 2,100 devices replaced over two years.

A total of £1.5m would be spent on the devices and accessories while the remaining £300,000 would go towards staff costs.

Council bosses say the majority of devices are now between four and six years old and are not covered under warranty, with many of them having reached the point where they are no longer fit for purpose and are costing the authority time and money in maintenance.

Council resources boss Cllr Andy Kay is due to present a report to the authority’s executive board next week recommending approval to proceed with the plan.

In the report, he said: “As we move forward with different technologies, the necessity to ensure our workforce is suitably equipped with flexible IT solutions becomes greater.

“In January 2020 Windows 7 will no longer be supported, making it imperative that the local authority upgrades to Windows 10.”

A business case was submitted which outlined three options - for the council to do nothing, to replace devices on a like-for-like basis or to replace devices with new models where necessary.

Cllr Kay added: “Option one was discounted due to the impact on staff in using ageing devices, the fact that as devices break, there would not be enough spare devices available to replace them, and also due to the fact that the current devices will become non-compliant in 2020.

“Due to the limited cost differential (£50k) between options two and three, a decision was made to progress with option three as this provides for the projected growth in devices as the authority continues to increase its digital requirement and capability. This option also ensures that employees are using the most suitable device for their roles and, as such, efficiency will increase.”

Provision for the scheme was included within the ICT Capital Earmarked Reserve for 2018-2021 as part of the capital programme approved at Finance Council in February. 

Members are also being asked to move on proposals to spend another £950,000 upgrading infrastructure including £140,000 on internal firewalls and £250,000 on Wi-Fi.