A couple of weeks ago I had a letter from West Oxfordshire District Council telling me that the way I register to vote is changing. There will now be two registers – the electoral register and the open register.
The latter is not used for elections. It can be bought by “any person, company or organisation”. Forgive me for being cynical, but it sounds to me that WODC is now selling this register as a mailing list for local, or national, businesses.
I get quite enough junk mail so I asked WODC to remove my name from the open register. I had a reply today to say that my details are now not on the open register, but “to be added to the open register please contact us”. Perhaps they thought I’d had a change of heart.
Unless you’re a big fan of unsolicited mail, I would recommend everyone to ask for their name to be removed.
“Removing your details from the open register does not affect your right to vote.” (WODC).
Derek Barry
Campion Way
Witney
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Today’s letters
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