TIME is running out for residents wishing to vote by post or proxy in the local council elections this May.

Those who cannot or do not want to personally attend their local polling station on election day, Thursday May 2, have until April 24 to make an application for a postal or proxy vote.

Any person who has made previous applications and wants to cancel or amend them needs to notify the council by April 17.

Bury Council Leader, Councillor John Byrne, said: "Polling cards are currently being distributed. Anyone can now demand the right to vote by post if they wish, but in order to do so they must have their applications submitted before the April 24 deadline."

Postal voters should receive their ballot papers on or before Friday April 26. If they have not arrived by then, people are asked to contact the Elections Office at Bury Town Hall.

Councillor Byrne said postal votes must reach the Returning Officer by 9pm on May 2, and those who find on May 2 that they have forgotten to post their vote still need not lose out on the right to choose their candidate.

They should go along to any polling station within the ward where they are registered and hand the forms over to the Presiding Officer.

Added Councillor Byrne: "We hope that, with these alternatives now open to voters, more people than ever will play their part in local democracy."