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Switch off – or face a £30 computer fine

Brian Lashley
13/12/2006

TAMESIDE Council is to fine its own departments £30 for every computer left on overnight in a bid to save energy.

The money would be slashed from the budget of individual departments.

Cabinet deputy for personal services, Councillor John Taylor, said checks carried out over the last year found workers in some offices left more than a quarter of the computers switched on.

A computer left on round the clock is said to cost about £37 a year, but if switched off at night and at weekends, the cost can be cut to about £10 a year. This would save enough energy to make approximately 34,900 cups of coffee.

Councillor Taylor said an energy officer and auditor carried out weekly inspections of council buildings - including town hall and social services departments used by more than 4,000 workers.

During a year-long pilot project workers who left PCs on discovered warning stickers on them the following day.

Councillor Taylor said it was inevitable financial penalties would be imposed.

"I think £30 is a good figure and I would like it done immediately," he said.

"Fines will make people sit up and listen. It will make managers sit up because their budget will lose out and services they provide will suffer.

"But at the end of the day they are using energy they should not be using. Energy is a commodity and we can't keep using it in the way we are.

"People will say Christmas lights waste energy but they are needed - leaving a computer on over the weekend is unnecessary."

The council said the initiative saved £4,000 in one building in three months.

But acting Tory group leader, Councillor John Bell, said he was concerned about fining departments.

He said: "I appreciate the council is conscious of the high cost of energy, but this is disgraceful. It is autocratic to treat employees in this way. If this is going to happen it has to be through negotiation."

Last year, Tameside signed up to the Local Authority Carbon Management Programme run by the Carbon Trust - a government-funded company aimed at tackling climate change.

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