Stroud District Council hopes to save £8,000 on its annual electricity bill as a result of a thin client system that it installed last year.

The council will eventually replace 550 desktop PCs with the system, and roll out a virtual desktop initiative that it hopes will save £240,000 over four years.

Local councils are under pressure from central government to reduce both the operational costs and the environmental impact of their IT systems.

Using a single server and thin client Citrix devices has cut IT management costs by almost 70 per cent compared with management of the original desktop PCs.

The systems also makes it easier for the IT department to deploy new software applications for all users to make changes that affect all users.

Nick Watkins, head of modernisation and ICT at the council, said: "Each helpdesk engineer used to support 150 users. With the Citrix solution they could support between 300 and 400 users. The ICT team now provides a consistent set of software services regardless of location."

External users can access IT services as if they were in the office allowing the council to move to flexible working.