A disaster recovery plan which would enable Bradford Council’s computer system to operate if a fire knocked out its main servers is expected to be up and running later this year.

It follows a warning by auditors in 2007 that the authority had no systems in place to automatically put out a fire if one were to break out in its central computer server room at Britannia House.

That, coupled with a lack of disaster recovery arrangements, could see a blaze knock out all the authority’s data- processing capabilities, auditors found.

The project came to a halt in 2009 under Conservative rule after £800,000 had been spent on a partially-completed site. But money was put in the budget earlier this year under Labour to see it completed.

The matter is expected to be discussed by the decision-making executive this month with a view to it being up and running by the end of October.

Councillor Glen Miller, leader of the Conservative Group on the Council, told the Telegraph & Argus: “The Council is the only organisation of its size that the auditors have inspected where there is no fire suppressant system in the main computer server room, and the disaster recovery procedures remain wholly inadequate to the point of being near non-existent and I am left with a very uneasy feeling indeed.

“We should not be talking about problems identified in the 2009 audit report mid-2011 and to respond to the potential loss through fire of all of the Council’s data processing capabilities, by partially constructing a disaster recovery centre but then stopping due to a shortage of money, could be the biggest false economy in the history of the Council.”

But Council leader, Councillor Greenwood blamed the situation on the previous Conservative-run administration. He said: “The Council’s internal audit report makes it clear that the Conservatives halted work in 2009 due to other priorities. Councillor Miller should tell us what took precedence and why his administration failed to identify weaknesses in the data centre that was designed on their watch.”

  • Read the full story Tuesday’s T&A