Don't lose your vote warns Rother

Last year one household in four failed to respond to the first form sent by Rother, despite a personal plea by chief executive Derek Stevens.

Households in Rother will shortly receive their 2007-2008 voter registration forms. Voters can register simply by completing and returning their form to the Town Hall, Bexhill.

Those that do not need to make any changes to the details printed on their form can also register either by phone or Internet.

To register by phone residents simply need to dial the free phone number 0800 1976193 and enter the unique code on the form using a touchtone telephone. To register by Internet go to http://www.registerbyinternet.com/rother enter the unique code and follow the on screen instructions.

The law requires that householders respond to the registration. However, despite last year's plea by Derek Stevens, 25% of householders in Rother did not respond to the first form.

This meant that almost 10,000 reminders had to be prepared and sent out at additional expense to the council taxpayer. Despite these efforts nearly 8000 households still did not respond and Council staff had to personally visit those properties. Personal visits are extremely costly and time consuming but are also a statutory requirement.

Households that do not respond could not only lose their right to vote but could also find their ability to open bank accounts, obtain mortgages, loans and even mobile phones if they are either removed from the register of electors or do not appear on it at all.

Mr Stevens said this week: "Again I urge the residents of Rother to respond to the first form as soon as possible as it really does save us all both time and money. Whilst a General Election could be called any time between now and May 2010, there is a lot of speculation that it could be sometime in the next nine months. To vote at any election you have to be on the register and failure to register will mean that people will miss out on the chance to vote."

It is expected that council staff will begin calling on non-responding properties in the middle of October. The process is likely to take until the end of November.

All council-appointed canvassers will be issued with identity cards but if anyone has any concerns over the legitimacy of any caller saying they are carrying out a canvass for the council, they should ring the council's elections office on 01424 787826.