St Andrews Parish Council has been asked why were polling cards not sent out for this Parish election and, I, as Chairman of the Council, feel I have a duty to respond.

Firstly, let me make it clear, that sending out polling cards is not a legal requirement - it comes down to choice and cost.

I personally enquired from Swindon Borough Council what cost of this election would fall on our Parish to pay. To my astonishment, I was quoted just under £22K, which every household in our parish would have to share, this charge will have to be added to our precept charge next year. The cost of polling cards would be around £5K plus approximately a further £5K for postage.

Two political parties are contesting this seat on our council and being told that leaflets and cards from the two candidates were planned to be delivered through the parish, which would include the day, date and time of the election, left no doubt in our minds that residents would be well informed about this election taking place.

I live in our parish and to date have received four of this form of communication, so we made a judgement to save on cost was not to go to the expense of the very costly polling cards.

As you are all very much aware, the covid-19 pandemic has seen many in our parish either lose their jobs altogether or had their working hours or days cut down. Now added to this we have the cost of living soaring to an unbelievable level many residents are finding life and costs very difficult to cope with hence we made our decision not to add to that burden and cut any costs that we legally could.

I apologise if our decision has caused concern but our intention, I promise you, was well-meaning, fully considered and in your best interests. I hope this helps you understand why polling cards were not sent out.

With kindest regards

Vera Tomlinson

Chairman St Andrews Parish Council