£1m Torfaen laptop saga rumbles on

Decision on the machines' fate delayed until at least the new year

A decision on the fate of 2,400 publicly-funded laptops worth £1m will not be reached until at least the new year, ChannelWeb has learnt today.

Torfaen County Borough Council procured 8,600 laptops as part of the Value Wales Framework in 2011, but around one third of the machines have still not been distributed around the county, despite the expiry of the warranties in March.

Since ChannelWeb broke the story revealing that the laptops are still in storage in October, Torfaen council and the Welsh government, from which funding for the laptops was secured, have been in talks over the laptops' fate, but a decision has still not been made after several meetings.

A representative for the council told ChannelWeb today that a decision "definitely will not be made until next year", but said that neither the council or the Welsh government could say why this was.

At the time it was revealed that the 2,400 HP notebooks remained unused, the council's deputy chief executive Peter Durkin said that he remained "totally confident" that the laptops would find a home.

The Welsh Government declined to comment.