A £13,000 robot has been bought by a council — to paint lines on football fields.
The droid uses GPS technology to mark out the two pitches.
SuppliedResidents of Maidstone, Kent, have not been impressed by a hi-tech droid that paints football pitches[/caption]
Locals say that the £13,000 could have gone on more urgent needsSupplied
But the council’s hi-tech approach in Maidstone, Kent, has failed to impress residents who say the cash could have gone on more urgent needs.
Paul Penny, who spotted the device being used, said: “My thoughts were, ‘£13,000 for public ground where it’s only kids and Sunday football played . . . are you kidding me?’.
“If it was a football club selling tickets for matches to pay for that sort of technology — OK. But it’s not.”
The robot’s maker says the model has been used to mark out 1.6 million fields around the world.
It is controlled through an app which allows the operator to drop a template of markings over a picture of the field before setting it going.
Maidstone Council insists it is a time-saver for staff, freeing them for other tasks.
But dad-of-three Paul, 47, said he witnessed council workers with their hands in their pockets watching the robot do its work.
He said: “It’s a kick in the teeth when you see two blokes standing around watching a robot paint lines that they could quite easily paint themselves.
“We haven’t got the infrastructure in Kent that we need and they’re charging us more than ever for council tax.
“I’m not seeing the money being used in a reasonable way.”
The council said the robot marked out a field — a job that would normally take at least two hours — in 45 minutes.
It added: “The use of this robot is not to replace the worker but to increase the efficiency and number of duties undertaken by the operative.”
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