Winchester City Council launches ‘paperless’ system for councillors
Winchester City Council is preparing to roll out a new ‘paperless’ system to all its councillors at the beginning of June.
The system, which has been piloted for a month will mean that they will no longer need to print and carry lengthy reports and documents and will manage their drop-in sessions, appointments and correspondence using tablets instead.
The move - which is in line with the Council’s evolving Digital Approach to doing business - will also make it easier for members of the public to access meeting agendas, reports and minutes, by simply downloading the ModernGov app on their phone or tablet. This technology will enable members to keep track of council meetings and decisions from across the District. The roll out will also save on the production of significant quantities of paper and effect a financial saving to taxpayers through the reduction printing and postage costs.
Cllr Stephen Godfrey, Portfolio Holder for Information Management and Technology said:
By introducing a paperless system to our councillors we aim to make them more accessible to their constituents and give them the opportunity to respond to residents enquiries quicker. Apart from the obvious democratic advantages of this, we hope it will also help us to improve our costs and reduce our environmental footprint by reducing the vast amount of printing which is required for every council meeting.
Joseph Holmes, Strategic Director of Resources added:
In a fast-moving digital world, we as a council need to ensure that our working practices are efficient - one of the ways we can do that is to introduce this new way of working. Councillors will not need to carry heavy, sometimes cumbersome reports to meeting with them and we hope that everyone will benefit from this change of practice.