Sir – 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 are now 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 the council is now selling this register as a mailing list for local, or national, businesses.
I get quite enough junk mail, so I asked the council 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 had had a change of heart.
Unless you are a big fan of unsolicited mail, I would recommend everyone to ask for their name to be removed from the open register. As the council says: “Removing your details from the open register does not affect your right to vote.”
Derek Barry, Campion Way, Witney
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