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In a recent Council meeting of Welwyn Hatfield Council, the Labour Party put forward a proposal for the Council to write to every single elector with an application form to register for a postal vote in next years elections.

In a debate about keeping the public safe, several Conservative Councillors decided to label this “shameful” and without any sense of awareness regarding the Governments squandering of many billions of pounds throughout the pandemic, attacked the idea of spending a few thousand pounds as financially irresponsible, mere minutes after voting through an unpopular local plan that has cost over 8 million pounds to the taxpayer.

Labour’s proposal was to set aside a modest budget to allow for the sign up of everyone to a postal vote should the need arise by writing to the electorate in February 2021 with a pre filled form to easily return. Labour Councillors argued to deaf ears that if the situation changed, as we hope it will, this money would not be spent but if the situation doesn’t change, they argued it would be too late to act.

Despite the Council not meeting again until February, a dozen weeks before polling day, discussing it in late November was labelled “premature” by the Conservative Councillor responsible for public health.

At time of writing, there is no information on Welwyn Hatfield Council’s website on how residents can register for a postal vote.

A recent article by the local paper reported a rise in Covid-19 cases in Welwyn Hatfield.

Councillor Max Holloway said “Labour Councillors wanted to discuss protecting the safety of local people while the Conservatives want to talk about Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer. It couldn’t be clearer where their priorities lay, and sadly it is not with the safety of people in Welwyn Hatfield.”

When the motion was put to a vote, several Liberal Democrat Councillors allied with the entire Conservative Group to defeat the proposal.

Labour urges all residents to sign up for a postal vote here

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