I RECENTLY tried to use the service provided by Wiltshire Council to remove a bulky item of unwanted furniture and dispose of it. There is a charge for this service but it is usually carried out efficiently.

However, on this occasion the telephone was answered at County Hall by a gentleman who said, “the system is down”. I took this to mean that there was a computer glitch.

Knowing the computing power needed to support a local government body the size and importance of Wiltshire Council, I naively assumed that there would be back-up systems in place and skilled technicians able to pounce on any misbehaving computer programme and sort it out within hours.

It therefore came as a surprise when I pressed for further information and was told that the system had crashed five days before and there was no way I could be told when and if it would ever be restored to normal working so that my need of service could be satisfied.

Pondering on the situation at County Hall brought to mind an experience that I had only days before. I tried to make a purchase at a shop in Devizes but was thwarted in doing so when I was informed that the computerised till was “down”.

I put away my debit card and flourished cash as an alternative means of making my purchase but it was explained that no money transactions of any kind would be possible until the till was fixed and there was no prospect of that happening swiftly, or so it seemed.

I therefore suggested that the staff should put up the ‘closed’ sign on the door to prevent potential customers entering a shop that was unable to trade due to a defective computer.

We have seen examples of computer systems being hacked and this has occurred even to some that are loaded with very sensitive information.

For this reason, I refuse to have online bank accounts despite assurances that breaches of security are very rare, according to the banks.

I have also read that although they do not like too much being said about it, the threat of cyber attacks as a form of warfare is a growing concern to world leaders.

I am no expert on these matters but now that our reliance on computers is so great, surely the many enemies we have around the world will have noticed this and be working on ways to create computing mayhem as soon as it suits them to do so.

The lack of contingency planning stands out to me. Surely, a well managed organisation, irrespective of size, should have a contingency plan in place to cater for the time when there is an IT problem that interferes significantly with the business, service or government.

In 1988 the First Interstate Bank of America suffered a major fire in its skyscraper headquarters in Los Angeles. The building was 62 stories high and five floors in the centre of the building were burnt out, making use of the rest of the building temporarily unusable.

I was in Los Angeles only days after this huge towering inferno and the bank enhanced its reputation and international prestige by being able to claim and prove that, despite the disruption caused by the blaze, its contingency planning was so sound that the business carried on with hardly any inconvenience to customers and business partners.

I was impressed by the bank’s level of preparedness and long to be reassured that such pre-planning for computer glitches is taken just as seriously throughout the UK.