VOTERS in an East Lancashire borough are being urged ask for their postal votes now in a bid to prevent a repeat of last year's problems.

Blackburn with Darwen's plea comes as a neighbouring borough gets set to do away with the conventional ballot box altogether and have everyone voting by post.

Last year, scores of people are believed to have missed their chance to vote by post when council ballot papers were held up because of postal strikes.

In a bid to get more people voting when a third of the council's 62 seats are up for grabs on May 2, the rules around postal votes were relaxed so anyone who wanted one could have it, regardless of whether they would be in the area on polling day or not.

But problems in Blackburn with Darwen forced chief executive Phil Watson to ask people who had wanted to vote by post to take their ballot papers to polling stations -- making the postal vote effectively pointless.

The council has pledged to stick by the new postal system as they try to push up voter turnout to 40 per cent to meet a Public Service Agreement target.

If they achieve the target, the Government will give them extra cash.

Today, Mr Watson said 14,000 had applied to vote by post.

He said: "As part of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council's PSA agreement to increase election turnout we have introduced policies to raise awareness of the advantages of voting by post and we now have 14, 000 postal vote applications.

"Residents of the borough will shortly be receiving a letter explaining the advantages of postal voting together with an application form that needs to be returned Freepost to the town Hall no later than 5pm on April 24 2002."

In Chorley, everyone is expected to vote by post this year. The borough is one of a handful nationally asked to pilot an election without polling stations.

Jeff Davies, chief executive of the council, said: "We have decided to do this for two reasons. Past trials elsewhere have shown that more people are prepared to vote if they can do so by post rather than at the polling station."

"Also, the council's electoral wards have been changes by the Local Government Boundary Commission. These changes have been imposed on the council and a postal vote is a simple way of making sure everything goes to plan."

The postal vote helpline number in Blackburn with Darwen is 01254 585920. People can also apply be e-mail on voting@blackburn.gov.uk mailto:voting@blackburn.gov.uk.