AT the recent Ross Town Council meeting, held on Monday, April 9th, councillors unanimously agreed to spend over £2,000 on provisions to comply with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which come into force on May 25th.

The Council’s primary discussion concerned a proposed expenditure of £702.00 plus VAT, to arrange the provision of 18 email licenses for all councillors to have a bespoke email address “@rosstc-herefordshire.gov.uk”, with effect from May 2018.

Councillor Julian Utting said: “£702 is far too expensive. We should challenge this figure and get it to around £500.”

The Ross Town Council Clerk, Sarah Robson, pointed out that the unit price for each email address was £39 plus VAT.

Cllr Daniel Lister said: “I agree with Cllr Utting. We should certainly look at other quotes, as it is a lot of money.”

The Clerk said that it was to enable the council to be complaint with the GDPR, and is the “safest route to deal with data appropriately and securely.”

However, the Clerk did agree to further investigate this figure and to search for other quotes.

The Council also approved an expenditure of £820 for Microshade VSM to undertake a Data Protection audit, provide a Data Protection Policy, a Data Breach Policy, Privacy Notice templates, a Data Protection Plan and a Retention Policy.

They also approved the appointment of Microshade VSM as the Council’s Data Protection Officer at an annual cost of £495.

The Clerk said that their were still some “unknowns” regarding the GDPR, with little information available. She added that they aren’t sure whether a Clerk can be the Data Protection Officer as well.

Lastly, they agreed on an expenditure of £200, plus travel expenses, for a GDPR Training session to be provided for all councillors and staff. This will be a two hour evening session, provided by an experienced Clerk, with training specific to Town Councils.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now