Thanks Stef,
I played with the DPI and the colours and certainly there was an improvement, but even at the lowest DPI (75) it still took about 15 seconds to scan an A4 page and at that resolution the page was mostly illegible.
You see, I'm contemplating a move to a paperless office and for that to be a practical reality, I'd need to be able to scan a document as quickly as I can photocopy one. Mind you, cutting down the DPI really did have a great effect on reducing the file size which was the other concern.
The resulting files are JPG.
I do appreciate your input - it's been educational!