53,000 not registered to vote on road tolls

Sixteen per cent of the city’s potential voters are set to miss out on the poll, despite a council publicity blitz designed to make sure everyone receives a ballot paper.

Opposition councillors today branded the 30,000 advertising campaign a "miserable failure" and claimed the council had put more effort into promoting the controversial scheme than making sure the public has its say.

The deadline for voter registrations is Friday but according to the council 53,000 potential voters are still unaware that they will be frozen out of the referendum. Council chiefs insist they have done everything they can to raise awareness, including printing 300,000 registration forms, setting up a helpline to deal with inquiries and advising people whether they are on the list or not.

The council has placed 16 adverts in newspapers, 118 on local radio, buses and the council’s website. Posters were also put up in council-run offices and libraries and six full-size billboards were taken out.

Some of those who have received leaflets have claimed many people were likely to throw them in the bin without realising what they are about. There is nothing on the front of the leaflet that mentions road tolls or congestion charging.

The council’s problems began when lawyers told officials planning February’s referendum that the law barred them from using the full electoral register to access details of would-be voters.

The council’s edited version does not contain details of householders who have asked not to receive unsolicited mail so, in a bid to get round the problem, council chiefs drew up plans in October for an advertising campaign to target the "missing" voters.

Councillor Fred Mackintosh, Lib Dem spokesman on road tolls, said:

"If the council had spent more time encouraging people to vote and less time banging on about their own private distortions it would have made this whole situation a lot better.

"I’m particularly cross that every time a leaflet is sent out the first two pages discuss why their scheme is good and the registration form is always on the back.

"It is so important people get the chance to vote, but I am losing faith that it will happen. I am still speaking to worldly wise people who don’t know they have to register and that is very worrying.

"I thought it would be down to at least 30,000, but for it to still be 53,000 is horrific and these people are going to be very annoyed when they don’t get a ballot paper on February 7, and they will blame the council for that.

"For every penny spent on promoting the right to vote, significantly more has been spent saying their scheme is best, and that’s wrong."

Councillor Allan Jackson, the city’s Tory transport spokesman, added: "They really haven’t tried hard enough and it seems the opposition have been doing more than the council to raise awareness with very little or no funding behind us.

"The council has failed miserably to target people and the money they have spent on this campaign hasn’t delivered the goods, it hasn’t reached the people at all.

"It is a great concern that so many people are still not eligible to vote because it is probably the most important thing to happen in the Capital in a generation."

Councillor Andrew Burns, the city’s transport leader, said: "I understand that nearly 90 per cent of Edinburgh residents are now on the referendum list and the deadline for residents to check whether they are included is not until this coming Friday, January 14.

"All anyone has to do to check, is call 0131-529 4877 or e-mail: [email protected] and I would encourage them to do so, ensuring they have their say in next month’s postal ballot.

"It does seem odd for the opposition groups to claim the registration awareness campaign hasn’t been successful when nearly 90 per cent of voters are registered and there is still nearly a week to go until the deadline.

"Their obsession with process is clearly a smokescreen for their lack of any alternative solution to Edinburgh’s transport challenges."