CORRESPONDENT B Dobbing said that he went paperless with BT (HAS, May 24) which is great as it avoids unnecessary paper bills being sent to him.

He somewhat surprisingly says that he then proceeded to print out a copy of his paperless bill for his records. I can't understand why, as he is defeating the whole object of going paperless by even wanting, or needing, a paper copy.

The whole idea of having your bill sent electronically is that you save a permanent record on your computer which you can refer to in the future.

I use paperless billing for both my telephone and energy accounts and in three years I have never needed to print them out. I have permanent records of them all, though, as they are saved on my computer and also backed up on another disc every so often for safe-keeping.

So, yes, paperless billing used in the correct computer stored way does save trees.

Colin Jones, Spennymoor, Co Durham.