COUNCILLORS in Pendle have voted unanimously to scrap all-postal voting at the next local elections.

Conservative leader Tony Beckett put forward a motion that shunned the pilot system at Pendle's annual council meeting.

The North West was one of four regions which piloted the system in an effort to increase turnout at the local and European elections on June 10.

The government is hoping to use all-postal voting for the Regional Assembly referendum in the autumn before extending it nationally.

But Coun Beckett told the meeting: "Postal voting should not be forced upon people who don't want it.

"While many doubts were expressed by the public about the lack of confidentiality of the voter there was also a very deep concern that this system could could be manipulated.

"The removal of choice to vote in person at a polling booth is an erosion of democracy and we therefore call on the Government to restore that choice at the next election.

"We would like to see a comprehensive and detailed report published on the financial and all other implications of this postal voting system with regard to the borough of Pendle."

Lord Tony Greaves, who made his return to front-line politics at this year's local elections, backed the motion.

He added: "In certain circumstances postal voting may be acceptable for the disabled person but the rest of us should get on our bikes and earn the right for people to get out to the stations and say that this person is more than worth making the effort to vote for.

"People should also have the right to vote in secret.

"Asian women said to me that they discuss and agree as a family which way they were going to vote, but by going to the polling station they can chose who they vote for. With this system they have lost that right."