NORTH West MEP Chris Davies has criticised the decision to impose automatic postal voting on Bury electors.

Peers decided this month that the north west should be one of the pilot regions for postal voting in the forthcoming local and European Parliament elections on June 10.

But Mr Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP for the North West, has accused the Government of sacrificing the secrecy of the ballot for the sake of a higher turnout.

He said: "The independent Electoral Commission has twice warned the Government publicly that there will be fraud in the north west if it goes ahead with its plan, yet its advice has been ignored.

"In multi-occupied houses, the ballot paper will be scattered around the entrance halls like junk mail," he said.