ALL city councillors are to be issued with electronic tablets after being banned from using their own computers and phones to access the authority's IT system.
Some claim the sudden move by the Government to clampdown on data security has not been thought through properly.
It has forced the city council to bring forward plans to issue tablet devices to all members of the council, as well as key staff.
Those plans were only agreed by the authority's cabinet last month in a behind-closed-door session.
They were approved as part of wider moves to cut costs by reducing paper-based documentation and slashing the number of meetings held by councillors.
A total of £1.3m was set aside earlier this year in the council's annual budget to buy extra mobile devices to allow for more so-called "remote working" at the authority.
However, that programme is still in its infancy.
Last week's abrupt confirmation by the Government's Cabinet Office came just a fortnight after an initial briefing note was issued from Whitehall.
It left many councillors shocked and bewildered, having previously relied on their own personal computers and phones to access the council's system because of long-running technology issues surrounding their council-issued BlackBerry devices.
In one email seen by the Mail, the council's director of resources Brendan Arnold tells one unhappy councillor: "Your indignation is shared by officers in general and the ICT team in particular."
In another sent to all councillors, he says: "The council has been formally notified by the Cabinet Office that the use of staff and members' privately-owned PCs to access the corporate network is no longer acceptable.
"This notification was only received on August 8 from the Cabinet Office under a 'zero tolerance' label.
"If the council had failed to comply we would not have been able to offer a number of services to the city from the end of this month, including housing benefit and registrars among others."
Deputy council leader Councillor Daren Hale said: "To sneak this out in August in the middle of the holiday season is typical of this Government.
"A diktat at two weeks' notice has taken everyone in the council by surprise.
"It is typical of this Government to act without a care for the financial and organisational implications in Hull."
Conservative group leader Councillor John Fareham said: "You couldn't make this up.
"At a time of austerity we get Whitehall wanting to improve security by stopping councillors spending their own money on getting IT hardware so we can spend hard-earned taxpayers' money giving politicians council equipment they don't want.
"Compulsory iPads when swimming pools are being closed is not a sane message."
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