Fenland District Council has saved £12,000 in the last year – by ditching paper.

The council has saved a total of £11,816 – equivalent to £985 a month - after adopting a ‘paperless’ approach to its council, cabinet and committee meetings.

The council said the project had been successful thanks to members’ use of tablets and laptops to view agendas and reports online, or download them to print at home at their own cost.

Prior to the move, all members of the council were provided with copies of committee reports, as well as paper and ink cartridges, at a cost of £12,935 per year.

But in 2015, as part of the council’s comprehensive spending review, it launched the pilot following a review of members’ ICT provision.

Councillor David Oliver, the council’s portfolio holder for community safety and heritage with responsibility for ICT, said: “As elected members we wanted to do what we could to help the council make savings where possible and the paperless project is a successful achievement in that regard.”