NEWPORT council has been blamed for a farce that has seen more than 2,400 laptops left in storage for more than a year.

Torfaen councillors have been told that despite Newport council playing a full role in developing a scheme to buy laptops for schools the authority pulled out after the laptops were bought.

Meanwhile Leighton Andrews, Welsh education minister, also told AMs that Torfaen informed Welsh Government officials last year that Newport had withdrawn from the iLearnWales project.

Newport council has stressed that it never committed to the scheme, which bought 8,642 laptops in March 2011 and saw 6,218 dished out to schools in Torfaen and Monmouthshire.

It had expressed surprise that Torfaen went ahead with the purchase.

A briefing note handed to councillors at Torfaen’s full council meeting said: “Despite playing a full role as part of the programme development team, Newport belatedly withdrew from the programme after the purchase of equipment for Newport schools.”

Alison Ward, Torfaen council chief executive, told councillors at the meeting that the council should hold a seminar for the public to discuss the issue, and that the council had nothing to hide.

In the Assembly yesterday Lindsay Whittle, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales East, asked the education minister why the Welsh Government agreed to part-fund the purchase of laptops when “clearly not enough local authorities were on board”.

Mr Andrews said he didn’t think the AM had the situation quite right, and said a plan approved from Torfaen in February 2011 had involved three local authorities.

“We were then advised by Torfaen in August 2011 that Newport had withdrawn fromthe project.” he said, adding another authority had been involved in advanced negotiations until it withdrewa couple of months ago.

Mr Andrews said the government was working with Torfaen to ensure the laptops were put to good use.

Newport council has said that it had no involvement with the purchase and had decided, before withdrawing from discussions on it, that the business case for the scheme was not sustainable.

It had at no point made a formal commitment to the scheme.