From the Daily Mail:
They’re never going to have to deal with a difficult route across country, or conquer the maze of an inner city.
In fact, the trickiest test of navigation they are likely to face is getting from one side of a field to the other.
But that hasn’t stopped council chiefs buying a set of sophisticated satnavs – for their fleet of lawnmowers.
They spent £6,000 hooking up the devices to 14 mowers because gardeners claimed they kept getting lost in long grass…
Launching the system this week, David Parsons, leader of the Tory-led council, said wet weather and sunny spells last year had led to problems keeping the grass cut.
‘Keeping Leicestershire’s grass verges neat and tidy is important and I’m pleased we are embracing innovative technology,’ he added.
But Lib-Dem councillor Adrian Smith, who represents Burbage South in Leicestershire, described the idea as ‘mad’.
‘A lot of people in our borough and other areas had to complain about the state of the grass last summer,’ he said.
‘But the satellite system idea seems mad to me. You would think there would be better ways of doing things.
‘I’d question whether the council should be lavishing taxpayers’ money on things like this during a recession.’
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2 Comments
A careful look at the article suggests this is about keeping a computerised record of which grass verges etc have been cut and the current location of the lawnmowers. That’s across a whole county. There are a lot of grass verges in a county. A county is a big enough are that a computerised map system seems sensible to me. The cost quoted is £6,000, that’s not a lot. Had they employed an administrator to do this by using phone calls, photocopied maps, and highlighter pens at the cost of £6,000 I doubt there would have been jokes made about it.
I don’t think the cost includes the central system – no way could they write that from scratch for less than £6000, the contractor would just shrug and go back to leeching NPfIT. The cost is for ‘sat-nav’ systems onboard the mowers. The “long grass” thing is a bit daft – it’s not to help them get out of a field, it’s also so the council can direct where they need to go next centrally. Why maps and radios on board the mowers have suddenly become obselete to the tune of £6000+ (more mowers are being fitted soon according to Metro) I’m not sure…