The Taxpayers’ Alliance’s lack of research beggars belief; it couldn’t be that the TPA are just a bunch of ideological zealots?
It was a classic Taxpayers’ Alliance story. The headline “Binmen get iPads to save on paper” ran across this morning’s Metro front page. The article detailed how supposedly-profiligate Bury Council was spending £9,000 on the Apple tablets so bin lorries could log details of collections.
The TPA weighed in:
“It beggars belief that a council making huge savings can find this money to splash out on iPads.
“Residents want bin services that are reliable and efficient, not council staff monitoring what they’re throwing out.”
The Daily Mail even lifted the “beggars belief” line for its own headline, topping off a fine day’s work for the TPA.
What actually beggars belief is the so-called alliance failed to do its research properly before commenting on something it knew very little about.
The initiative will actually save Bury Council money, the iPads just being a new form of efficiency-through-mechanisation. A spokesman for the council told Left Foot Forward the changes have the capacity to save the council more than £150,000 per year.
He added:
“This system should ensure that the number of missed collections is reduced to an absolute minimum, because any problems are reported in immediately to our Customer Contact Centre [rather than afterwards, meaning that houses would need to be revisited]. We collect from 83,000 houses each week.
“In the last financial year, we received 4,228 reports of missed bins – we estimate that it would cost £40 to revisit each house, equivalent to nearly £170,000 a year, so this new system should make hefty savings.
“Bury Council is consistently ranked as one of the country’s most cost-effective and efficient councils, and this initiative has been developed in-house in order to keep down costs.”
Honestly, one might jump to the conclusion that the TPA were not really interested in value for money for taxpayers, but on an ideological adventure to undermine public services and the public sector – in this case Bury Council’s directly-provided bin collection services.
92 Responses to “Crazy Taxpayers’ Alliance attack on council that’s *saving* money”
Robert Oxley
Daniel, we have replied to this post here http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/waste/2011/08/left-foot-buy-nonsense-council-prs-send.html
Richard
“Or even phone into the office using a hands free to allow an office based worker to type the data into an existing desktop.”
And now work out the annual costs of, God forbid,creating one or several full-time jobs.
Richard
“Cost of asking drivers to use their own phones: 0”
And why should the binman be expected to fork out of his own salary for your satisfaction? Next you’ll be expecting policemen and firemen to pay to keep your streets safe and your house from burning down.
Richard
“Not something you want when you are hauling tons of dirty rubbish.”
It’s in the cab, not in the bleeding crusher. Do engage your brain before your keypad.
nonny mouse
>>It’s in the cab, not in the bleeding crusher. Do engage your brain before your keypad.
You do know that iPads are touch screens, right? They get dirty, they stop working.
The reason quoted in the sun is that paper gets wet or lost. Most people who own electronics know that water and electronics are a worse match than water and paper, and having an expensive electronic device in the cab just makes for a nice target for your common or garden thief.
The iPad would need bolting to the dashboard at even more expense.