A PLAN to provide all Malvern Hills district councillors with laptop computers has been put on hold.

Officers will be told to take another look at the scheme and find out what other local authorities are doing.

Under the council's e-government strategy, computers costing £658 each should have been made available to all 38 councillors by the end of April.

The cost, £25,000 if everyone took up the offer, would be paid for by central government. Seven district councillors already have laptops under the scheme.

On Tuesday, the council's executive committee was due to consider providing broadband connections at the homes of members who wanted it, at a total cost of around £8,200 a year.

This would enable councillors to quickly download documents such as reports and agendas. Savings from no longer having to print documents and posting them to members would offset the cost of the connection charge.

But council leader Tom Wells withdrew the proposal and directed officers to review the whole policy.

"I'm not sure we should be spending public money on providing laptops that may not really be required," he said. "Most councillors have their own computers at home these days.

"The money from central government is for information technology generally. There may be better ways to spend it than on laptops for members."