Thousands set to miss out on road-charging vote

Council chiefs have admitted that, despite a costly publicity blitz launched two months ago, 17 per cent of the city’s voters have failed to register to have a say on the issue.

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While more than 30,000 people have heeded the latest council warnings, a further 60,000 appear oblivious to the fact that they are entitled to vote on the controversial scheme.

Critics say the Don’t Lose Your Vote campaign has been a waste of money and has failed to reach the people it was supposed to.

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.

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’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.

The council, which is not permitted to write to the voters concerned, has placed adverts in newspapers, on local radio, buses and on the council’s website. Posters were also put up in council-run offices and libraries.

The vast majority of those who have registered since the campaign was launched are believed to live in affluent areas of the city.

Critics say thousands more living in city centre tenements or in housing estates, where there is a high turnover of tenants, are being "disenfranchised" because they are more difficult to track down.

Ingliston housewife Judith Sansum, 49, said she had written to the council to complain that the leaflets and adverts were not making clear to people that they had anything to do with road tolls. She added: "It looks to me as if the council are just trying to get this through without needing to promote it to anybody at all.

"Having this whole thing over the Christmas period also smacks of the council trying to make sure people don’t have the time or the enthusiasm to register. I really can’t see where the hundreds of thousands of pounds supposed to have been spent on this campaign has gone to. Whatever they’ve done, it’s not getting the story across at all."

John McGoldrick of the National Alliance Against Tolls said: "If the council have something to sell and has faith in that product, everybody should be able to vote and both sides of the argument should have equal access to campaign money. At the moment, it’s heavily loaded towards the council’s side."

Anyone who has been excluded from the list but now wishes to be on it must register by January 14. People simply have to fill in a form requesting they take part.

John Richardson, chairman of the Old Town Business Association, said: "I think it’s important that these people are given the choice of whether to vote or not, and the council has to be given credit for trying to encourage them to do so, but it could also have publicised it a whole lot better."

Lib Dem Councillor Fred Mackintosh said: "We want the maximum number of people to have the opportunity to vote. We don’t want people to turn up in February for a referendum only to discover they have been disenfranchised.

"This is quite a serious problem and the council seems to be spending more time spinning policy than encouraging people to register for the issues that really matter. This campaign has been limited and expensive."

City transport leader Andrew Burns said the council was pressing ahead with its advertising campaign.

The difference between the two registers had been smaller than many people had originally feared, he added.

"However, it doesn’t make a lot of difference to our plans to encourage people to make sure they have a vote," he said.

"We are going ahead with an information campaign in the media, on public transport and in public buildings and we are confident we will reach everyone who is entitled to vote. This is a vital issue that will decide the transport picture in Edinburgh for the next 20 years and I want as many people as possible to join in the debate and use their vote."

A council spokesman said: "In the past couple of weeks, around 2000 people have been in touch to add their names to the list.

"We expect many thousands more names to be added before the list closes on January 14."