Council Canvassers Help Residents Avoid Fines |
||
Failure to register on electoral roll can mean a prosecution More than 20,000 households across the borough will be visited by council canvassers over the next few weekends to collect unreturned electoral registration forms. The team of canvassers delivered registration forms to every home in this borough between August 4 and 9, and two reminders have been sent out since then. Households that fail to register their form face prosecution with a maximum fine of £1,000 open to magistrates. In previous years the council has prosecuted people who failed to return their form of which each received a fine. Cllr Sue Sampson, the council’s cabinet member for performance and customer care said: “It’s quite an operation, and our canvassers work hard to collect all the unreturned forms across the borough to ensure we fulfil our statutory duty of keeping the electoral register up to date. “Even if none of your details have changed you still have to let us know, and there are many ways of getting in contact with the council to keep us informed.” The form is addressed to the ‘Present Occupier’, so if the names that appear pre-printed on the form no longer live at the address, the current occupier must cross out their names and write in the names of the new occupiers. Residents who have not yet returned their forms, registered via the freephone number or internet service, are reminded to register as soon as possible by returning their completed forms, or, if there are no changes to be made, registering by telephone or the internet. If the information on the form needs changing, the form should be filled in, signed and returned by post in the envelope provided as quickly as possible. Even if the information on the form is correct and no changes are required the householder still needs to register to confirm their details. This can be done by:
Electoral Services, London Borough of Hounslow, Civic Centre, Lampton Road , Hounslow TW3 4DN. Or, email elections@hounslow.gov.uk or call 020 8583 2828.
October 10, 2012 |