MANCHESTER could get an army of cyber-councillors.

The city's 96 councillors are each being given a BlackBerry, the handheld units which combine phone, email, cameras and the internet.

It is hoped that they will use them to take pictures and instantly contact council departments on behalf of ward residents with concerns or problems.

The town hall is also unblocking access to social networking websites, including Facebook and Myspace and will encourage councillors to put themselves out in cyberspace to reach more local people.

The council was previously one of a growing number of businesses that stopped employees using social networking websites at work.

Councillors will also be given top-of-the-range computers and training as part of the £200,000 two- year IT package.

It comes after it emerged that Labour was to tell its MPs to hand in their pagers. The party believes mobile phones and text messaging has rendered the older technology obsolete. The pagers became synonymous with supposed `control freakery' at the top of the Labour party in the late 1990s.

Problems

Coun Pat Karney said: "The BlackBerry is the perfect tool for councillors because when they are out and about they can email or phone the town hall or take pictures of problems in their area.

"We are all going on a training course - and we have to, because at the moment there are some members who think they are called `Blueberries'.

"We want to break down the barriers and help councillors to connect with people directly. Our predecessors who used ink pots and pens would be astonished - but it is something we need to do."

Coun Karney said councillors had come to appreciate the power of sites like Facebook after a huge internet campaign over the future of Afflecks Palace shopping centre in the Northern Quarter. Nearly 9,000 people signed up to a group called `Save Afflecks Palace' and signed an online petition.

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