WORKING around the clock every day of the year including Christmas Bury Council's latest employee doesn't even need to stop for a cuppa!

He - or rather it - is the robot helper that is now ensuring the local authority's operations run smoother than ever.

The Wolfcreek Robotic Cartridge System has already begun to more than pay for itself.

It's making savings by cutting the costs of storage, staff time and maintenance, and also be working all night!

And it has the capability to store millions of document images - around three million a year! - and can save Council facts and figures for up to ten years.

Bury Metro is pioneering this major step forward in conjunction with International Computers Limited.

Said council leader John Byrne: "The system's true potential was only recognised when our own chief information services officer suggested to ICL that it could be used to store documents efficiently and cheaply.

"As a result we have joined forces with them to pioneer the use of Wolfcreek, and we are pleased that we can now do away with so much paper material by storing documentation which we need to keep for legal and archive purposes."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.