Issue - meetings

Received a report proposing the use of corporate underspends from 2003 / 2004 to address pressures on the Council’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure which have come to light in recent months.

Agreed, in order to maintain the smooth running of ICT to sustain day-to-day activities, to support the delivery of all services and avoid the risk of serious disruption to services, to:

1. Additional expenditure of £1,100,000 in 2004 / 2005 on areas of ICT infrastructure (as set out in tables 1 and 2 of the report) which provide support for all council services;

2. The use corporate underspends for 2003 / 2004 to fund these actions;

3. The ICT infrastructure implications of new projects to be evaluated so as to ensure funding of renewal and growth on a sustainable budgeting basis from 2005 / 2006 onwards; and

4. An additional staff resource of 1 full time employee in Information Management and Technology (IM&T) to ensure that the operating software on the council’s 3000+ computers are properly updated (as set out in paragraph 2.7 of the report).