News / Politics
‘Slightly crap City Hall soap opera just got worse’
New iPads issued to the latest intake of city councillors are unable to access emails due to a technical blunder.
Green Party leader Charlie Bolton raised the issue on Facebook, saying “the slightly crap soap opera which is City Hall is just a bit worse”.
New councillors, many of whom work from home, saw emails stop working on their new devices last Thursday.
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Bolton said in a Facebook post on that IT contractors who set them up had finished their contracts, and there was no foreseeable solution.
Old councillors, elected earlier than May 2016, can still access their emails via a web log-in, he said.
He added: “The new ones can only log in by going into the Council House [sic]. So basically some of them are stuffed.
“To put it another way, considering the change of senior management, and – far more importantly – the hundreds of rapid job losses (and goodness only knows what staff morale must be), the slightly crap soap opera which is City Hall is just a bit worse today.”
A spokesperson at Bristol City Council said: “New security measures have unfortunately caused a temporary issue with councillors receiving email on their iPads.
“This error was raised immediately with our ICT department and the network operator. In the meantime councillors can still access their emails via our web-based portal. A permanent fix is expected soon.”
All 70 councillors were issued with their own iPad Pro, retailing at between £450 to £650 each.
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