The Total PF-P3000 suction-fed folding machine is the first new piece of kit that the council has bought in two years.

North Somerset's new machine is compatible with paper sizes from 127 x 127mm up to 254 x 432mm and has a maximum speed of 12,000sph.

It features a digital counter and a programmable memory which can store up to 10 custom fold settings.

According to print manager Andy Turner the machine's ease of use made it perfect for his small department.

He said: "We only have two permanent members of staff, so it is great to have a machine that we can set up and then leave it to itself. Or if we really need to we can just get someone from upstairs to look after it, our previous machine was a traditional print machine and a new person would have no idea how to handle it."

Turner added that the council, which currently prints maps, brochures, corporate booklets and internal stationery for the council, is to expand its work to other local public services after the council "removed some of the shackles" that had previously left the department inflexible.

He said: "We made the decision to expand our customer base following the gradual lifting of the red tape that has previously prohibited us from competing for commercial projects. We are now about to start offering our services to other members of the local public sector, for example the NHS, in a practice known as 'shared services'."