Graham, Tom and Ian

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Electoral registration – Stockport update

by Lib Dem team on 20 September, 2010

From Stockport council:

The Council has recently sent Electoral Registration Forms to every property in the borough for people to register their names on the Electoral Register allowing them to vote in future elections. If the details on the form sent to residents are correct they are given various options to register that there is no-change to their details. These options are telephone, internet or text message.

The form and covering letter sent to households clearly states that there are two different telephone numbers people can call to register their details. If a residents first language is English they should ring 0800 197 8607. There is also an alternative number 0800 107 8607 for residents who speak other languages, although it does still contain English as an option to save people from having to redial the other number.

The Council received two anonymous complaints about English being the 10th language option on the alternative languages line. To avoid any further confusion we have since contacted the company that deals with the telephone voter registration line and English is now given as the first choice option on the alternative languages number.

   7 Comments

7 Responses

  1. Robert Taggart says:

    Now that your ‘mob’ be ‘in league’ with the Tories… what be the point in voting ? Voting for what exactly ? !

  2. iainroberts says:

    Robert – parties form coalitions all the time. The Lib Dems want to get Lib Dem policies and Lib Dem values into Government and we’re doing it. 800,000 people taken out of paying income tax, £2.5 billion banking levy, pensions re-linked to average earnings and much more – all things that ONLY happened because the Lib Dems got 23% of the vote and did exactly what we promised we would before the election – seeking to have an agreement with whichever party got the most votes and seats at the election.

    So there’s every reason to vote, and to vote Lib Dem. Not only do you get hard working local councillors and an excellent hardworking MP to champion our area; but many of the Lib Dem policies are, for the first time, actually becoming law and making our country a better place.

  3. Robert Taggart says:

    ‘Your’ government wishes to reduce the deficit (reduce the total expenditure say I !), hence all these cuts (supported by moi).
    Question… would you ‘turkeys’ vote for christmas ?… reduce the number of councillors in Stocky ? ! Methinks one councillor per seat be quite sufficient. But, that said, there be a case for more seats – one for Gatley alone ? Currently the council has (?) 21 seats, giving us 63 councillors (bums ?!). How does 30 seats with 1 councillor sound ? Plus,elections only once every five years. As for the ‘shires’ with their continued nonsense (not every shire, but most) of two tiers of council – district county, well, what a mess, what a confusion, what a golden opportunity to make some real cuts !

  4. M Kenny says:

    I think the council putting English at the first position in the list is correct even though we are a (very) accomodating country to immigrants. The comments about the coalition are in my view inappropriate. We have to have a government and this one seems at least to be facing up to the realities of government spending and how to deal with the deficit rather than just borrowing more and more until we go bankrupt.

  5. iainroberts says:

    I can report that English has been moved to be the first language in the list, even though the line is specifically for people who don’t have English as a first language.

  6. iainroberts says:

    Robert – as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the number of councillors we have, and the ward boundaries, are not something Stockport controls. Given the workload councillors have, I happen to think it’s probably about right (an alternative might be to have fewer councillors and pay them enough for it to be a full time job).

    You mention the two-tier councils. We don’t have any here, of course (both Greater Manchester and Cheshire now have single-tier local government). It isn’t my area of expertise, and you might know more about it than I do, but where authorities have been merged I don’t believe it’s produced the financial savings that had been predicted.

  7. The number listed does not work.

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