A TRIP to the polling station to cast your vote in future local elections will be a thing of the past if a leading labour councillor gets his way.

The leader of the opposition Labour group on Bromsgrove District Council, Councillor Peter McDonald (Uffdown and Waseley), wants local elections to be decided by a total postal vote.

He has tabled a motion for the June meeting of the full council to debate the idea.

Bromsgrove has around 69,000 voters on the electoral roll.

At last year's General Election a record 5,228 postal vote applications were received by polling officers at the Council House in Bromsgrove.

Cllr McDonald said: "Postal voting was successful when it was tried in the recent council elections.

"Not everyone works sociable hours and some people, because of work patterns, find it very difficult to attend a polling station."

In areas where postal voting was trialed the authorities reported an average increase of 28 per cent in the vote. Chorley almost doubled its figure to 61 per cent.