12/05/11…Vote of No Confidence after ‘shambolic’ Poll

THAME Town Council has lodged a Vote of No Confidence in the Presiding Officer of last Thursday’s local elections and AV referendum.

The emergency Notice of Motion was brought forward by Thame Town Cllr Mike Dyer at the first meeting of Thame’s new town council on Tuesday (10/05).

The vote follows a string of complaints from District Councillors, Poll station staff, counters and others about the way the poll was run, resulting in postal vote applications being sent out late, inadequately sized envelopes being provided to send them back in and various others delays and inadequacies.

According to the Henley Standard, some residents were unable to vote in the local elections because postal ballot papers arrived late or were sent to the wrong address.

“The mix-up affected people in Goring, Watlington and Benson entitled to vote in the parish and district council elections yesterday (Thursday). Unless they had contacted South Oxfordshire District Council in advance, they were not allowed to vote at polling stations because they were already registered as postal voters.” said the Standard’s report.

“People with transport or mobility problems or prior commitments and those on holiday couldn?t vote at all.

The council, which is responsible for distributing the ballot papers, blamed a printing firm for the series of errors.

Benson?s postal ballots were sent to Ewelme, which didn?t have enough candidates to hold a parish election.”

In Thame, Cllr Dyer called the Poll ‘shambolic’ while Thame’s District Cllr, Anne Midwinter defended the officers, some who worked, she said until 2am the morning before and then returned at 8am for the count which lasted 15 hours.

The town council voted unanimously for the Vote, except Cllr Don Butler, who was not around on the day.

According to the BBC, Returning Officer David Buckle said a “thorough review” would be carried out but rejected claims there were problems on election day itself.

Mr Buckle, who is also chief executive of the council, said: “As far as I’m concerned it wasn’t a disaster and nothing went wrong.”

However, he accepted the 15 hour count was longer than expected, but that it was because of the Alternative Vote referendum and a larger number of parish council elections than other districts in Oxfordshire.

He also conceded there were problems in the lead up to the election day.

“This time we appear to be getting more phone calls saying poll cards and postal votes hadn’t arrived and I need to understand why that was the case,” he said.

Ann Ducker, Conservative leader, said the way it was conducted was “horrendous.”

PHOTO: David Buckle pictured in Thame recently when he attended the official opening of Meadow View Park.