05 January 2001
Plans by four councils to experiment with all-postal ballots to increase voter turnout at local elections could be scuppered by the imminent General Election.
Norfolk, East Staffordshire, Reading and West Sussex councils have all been given the go-ahead by the Home Office to trial the ballots on May 3.
However, that date is currently the favourite for a national election. All four councils say they will postpone the experiment if the country goes to the polls on the same date.
'It is the spanner in the works,' said Carl Welham, head of public relations at Reading Borough Council.
Reading will trial postal ballots in three wards. Norfolk has plans for seven electoral wards to take part.
In 1999, two Norwich wards, Bowthorpe and Catton Grove, took part in a similar experiment and saw dramatic increases in voter numbers. In Bowthorpe, voting increased by two-thirds to almost 31%.
'They turned out to be higher than the city average of 29%,' said Joanna Hannam, head of communications at Norfolk.
West Sussex will use the ballot in just one ward, Broadfield in Crawley.
The trials reflect local and central government concern at the lack of interest in council elections. Each of the four authorities claimed poor turnout as the reason for the trials.
In 1999, turnout at local elections dipped below 30% for the first time in history.
Ministers have also sanctioned other experiments including mobile polling stations and voting in advance, but only postal ballots seemed to have had any recognisable effect.
PFjan2001
