Missing ballot botch-up

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/ham ... otchup.php

TEST Valley Conservative Daniel Busk launched a blistering attack on the Royal Mail this week over its cavalier attitude to democracy and misdirected postal votes in the May local elections.

In a strongly worded motion to the borough council meeting on Wednesday - which was passed unanimously - Mr Busk called on fellow members to demand justification for the deplorable attitude' of the Royal Mail towards local democracy'.

He wants answers from Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier and chairman Allan Leighton.

Mr Busk urged the council to communicate with the Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw and Minister of State for Justice Michael Wills, asking they give urgent attention to the Royal Mail's refusal to accept full responsibility for its duty to deliver postal votes' on time.

And he stressed this council's great concern that the Royal Mail's position is damaging for local democracy and citizen engagement across the country'.

The council only became aware of the misdirected postal votes more than a week after the election, and it won legal permission to open and count the mis-delivered votes to see if any electoral candidates had grounds

A spokeswoman for the council said: "The Royal Mail has refused to compensate Test Valley council taxpayers for the time and expense involved in this process, and has also been dismissive of its responsibility to deliver postal votes in time to be counted."

When the story about the lost postal ballots broke it was suggested they were posted in time for the election on 3 May but were delivered to an Andover company where they remained for over two weeks.

But the company which does not wish to be named, has told the Andover Advertiser the timescale is incorrect. The firm says the post arrived on polling day, but was not discovered until the following day because at the time it was receiving a huge amount of mail.

A company spokesman said: "We phoned the Post Office five times on the Friday but there was no answer and no voice mail."

They sent e-mails and contacted the depot in South-ampton and eventually the message got through. The Royal Mail picked up the postal ballot on 9 May - six days after delivery.

The borough council said it first became aware of the problem on 11 May, at which time the ballot papers were back with the Royal Mail. The returning officer received the mail on 14 May.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said the organisation met with representatives of Test Valley Borough Council and wrote to the chief executive in August.

He said: "We apologised for the problems the delay of a number of items for the council had caused and provided assurances that the matter had been fully investigated and action taken to try to prevent a reoccurrence in the future. Royal Mail takes its responsibility to deliver our customers' mail promptly and we acknowledge we failed on this occasion.

"We further explained that under the terms of the service the council used for voters to return postal ballots we are unable to meet their claim for compensation."