LOCAL elections are due to take place in Wirral on Thursday May 6.

We shall be electing councillors to represent us on Wirral Council, the Liverpool City Region Mayor and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

I encourage readers to ensure that they are on the electoral register and also suggest that they apply for a postal vote.

We are not yet out of the epidemic so postal voting will reduce pressure at the polling stations helping to ensure that staff and voters are as Covid secure as possible.

I also wish to comment on the Government’s proposal to introduce voter identity for elections from 2023 onwards.

I would oppose this.

As a Wallasey resident I suspect that many people within Wirral have neither a driving licence nor passport and so would be prevented from voting.

Application for a passport online costs £75.50, unless the applicant is over 90 years old; this would constitute a voting charge.

Additional burdens would be placed on the staff at polling stations.

They would have the tasks of turning away those who attended without ID, and of being in the invidious position of matching photograph with person.

Voting is a hard-won, and treasured, British right; barriers to exercising it must not be introduced.

John Oldershaw, Wallasey