"Someone wants sacking" - Derbyshire residents urged to contact council over 'lost' postal votes

Residents hoping to cast a postal vote for the upcoming local elections have been urged to contact their local authority after a spate of ‘lost’ postal ballots.

The Derbyshire Times has been contacted by residents from north east Derbyshire who reported not receiving their postal vote pack, with the local authority asking those impacted to get in touch.

The issue has been raised at a national level and is believed to be ‘much wider than just Derbyshire’ whilst North East Derbyshire District Council said it was ‘investigating’ issues in the delivery of postal ballot packs.

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Robert Roberts, from North Wingfield, said his pack was due to arrive last week and described the situation as ‘incompetence’.

“It’s bad enough that they haven’t arrived but there’s been no communication. This must be an issue that they are aware of and if it’s not sorted there’ll be hundreds of people not able to vote. It doesn’t seem particularly hard to make sure people get their ballots so that they can vote. It’s absolute incompetence - someone needs sacking for it”, he said.

A spokesperson for the council said: “We as a council have done all we can to assist those whose postal ballot papers have not arrived and who have informed us of this. The Council can confirm all postal vote information was delivered to our print suppliers on time and the packs should have been delivered as usual. NEDDC is now working with Royal Mail and the Council’s print suppliers to investigate what has happened.

“In the meantime, you can contact us if your postal vote has not arrived by calling our elections team on 01246 217068 or 01246 217069.

“There may be an answerphone as we deal with other calls, so pleased be prepared to leave a voicemail message including name, address and telephone number and a member of the Electoral Services Team will respond to the elector as soon as reasonably possible.

“The deadline for contacting the council for a replacement postal vote ballot pack is 5pm Thursday 4 May.

“Postal votes can be handed in at any polling station in the district up until 10pm Thursday 4 May.”