[SLUG] Re:Re:Bristol and Council tax

[Bob Garrood]

Hi 

Thanks for all the comments.  Especially Mike,  and I would love to include 
all sorts of links, but this letter is too long for most editors already.  
I've been rewriting to make it shorter, but it ended up longer.

Apologies for not making last night.

Martin, I can read SBC's website with Konqueror, but it looks a mess.

Here is the slightly altered text which I plan to send tomorrow:


Tel 01723 361938
Top Flat
14 The Crescent
Scarborough
N Yorks 
YO11 2PW 
4th April 2006
The Editor
Scarborough Evening News

Sir

Council tax payers in Scarborough who pay by direct debit will now have become 
aware that their bank balances have just been reduced at the new increased 
rate.  

There is good news for council tax payers.  Councils can save money on 
computer software.  Bristol Council is moving from Microsoft Office 
applications (word processors, databases, spreadsheets and other common 
administration tasks), to software that uses open standards, and have 
produced a report estimating that over the next 5 years this will reduce 
their IT costs from £1.7 million to £650,000.

Details of Bristol council's  policy and a link to their analysis of costs are 
on: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS6953189127.html .

Open Document Format makes these savings possible by using a published open 
standard,. Any developer can implement it, competition is possible and this 
ensures lower prices.  Commercial developers, including IBM and Sun, open 
source developers, such as OpenOffice.org and KOffice, have already produced 
widely used office suites based on this format  

If you want to look at a free version of this software that works with Windows 
you can download it (as OpenOffice.org) from: www.openoffice.org/   ,or 
contact Scarborough's Linux user Group on:   scarborough at mailman.lug.org.uk.

Open standards improve local democracy.   If councils use open standards, then 
we can all read and write to all electronic local government documents.  
Scarborough Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council should let us 
know their policy on Open Document Format now.

Yours sincerely
Bob Garrood    e-mail  bgarrood at tiscali.co.uk
Martin Webb                martin at webb.lcbroadband.co.uk
Mike Bennett                mikeyben at gmail.com


Bob