Colchester Council will save £14,000-a-year if a move to get all its members and officers using e-mail proves successful.

The council will save the cash by reducing the courier service to one day a week, forcing information to be distributed among members, officers and external organisations over the internet.

At a meeting yesterday at Colchester Town Hall, a cabinet committee was to make a decision on whether to reduce the service from five days a week to one.

The council's intranet was launched at the end of 2000 to allow electronic communication. It was thought this would increase efficiency and reduce costs associated with printing and distributing information.

But a council report states there continues to be a reliance on paper copies of reports and agendas.

The budget areas that were reduced continue to show a significant overspend, which is similar to spending prior to the intranet launch.

The report stated a "change of culture" was needed to bring about "a significant increase in electronic communication."

It recommended a rethink over methods of communication, with documents to be sent electronically wherever possible.

Published Tuesday January 15, 2002