I WAS surprised to discover last week, chatting to a friend, that there was going to be a town council election in a couple of weeks time for Tavistock north ward, where I live.

This shocked me somewhat as I had heard nothing at all about it previously. Furthermore I will actually be away on the date of the election and had I heard about it a day later I would have been too late to apply for a postal vote. 

I mentioned the upcoming election to three local friends and none of them had heard about it either, despite all being engaged and politically aware people.

It seems the town council no longer sends out election notices to residents. The same thing happened for the previous town council election, which I found out about again purely by luck.

I find this really shocking as I wish to be fully engaged in the political process and exercise my rights as a citizen in a democratic society. We live in a time when people decry the lack of political engagement. Surely it is vital to do everything possible to support the process of democracy. Doesn’t the town council have funds for local elections? Is this a money saving exercise? If so it seems to me to be very short sighted and for sure profoundly undem-ocratic. 

It concerns me that it also could have the potential to foster suspicion of croneyism and attempts to manipulate the election process by allowing those in the know to canvass their supporters while others remain in the dark. I imagine that it is much easier for candidates who represent a political party, as opposed to independents, or for candidates who have greater resources, to circulate information, leaving independents and newcomers to the process at a big disadvantage at a time when disillusionment with the main political parties is at an all time high.  

If this is purely a money saving exercise, which I recognise may be tempting in the current situation, it seems at the least to be incumbent on the town council to find better ways to inform the electorate so that the democratic process can be fully upheld. 

Although I generally buy the Tavistock Times, which apparently ran an article and there was an advertisement in the paper for the vacancy, I am also sometimes away and sometimes don’t have time to read it all!

Many people who work full time or are busy probably don’t have time to comb it from cover to cover so not really a replacement for sending around polling cards.

Sarah Kelsey 

Tavistock