Thousands hit by Wolverhampton election letter confusion

Last week, the authority dispatched 110,000 letters to residents apologising for 'an administrative error' in a previous document which led to every voter in the city being given false information about their status on the register.

The apology, which cost nearly £30,000 to send out, included details of a website where people could check their position on the register – but did not include the security codes required to access the system.

The codes had been printed on the earlier letter, which thousands of people across the city had already completed and sent back to the Civic Centre.

One furious resident, who asked not to be named, told the Express & Star: "The codes were on the first letter they sent out, which said you would get fined £1,000 if you didn't fill in the details and send it off.

"Like many others I filled in the details and sent it back, but it turns out they got the information completely wrong and sent us another letter.

"It said if you want to confirm the details you need to go to a website and enter the codes. The codes aren't even on the letter. What am I supposed to do, phone up the council to find out what my codes are?

"That's going to cost me more money to correct their mistake. It's frustrating.

"I don't trust these clowns to get anything right - they can't see beyond the ends of their noses."

Councillor Jonathan Yardley, who represents Tettenhall Regis for the Tories, said: "This is a ridiculous situation where the council is putting the onus on the householder to correct its own mistake.

"Yet the codes residents need to check their information were included on a form that many people would already have sent back to the council.

"This has been a complete mess from start to finish."

Council spokesman Tim Clark said: "As soon as the mistake was discovered, the priority for our electoral registration team was to send out letters immediately to apologise and reassure people that there was nothing to worry about and they didn't need to take any further action.

"Individualising the letters for a mailshot of this size (110,000 households) would have delayed the sending of this letter by several days and time was of the essence when you consider the confusion and concern the original mistake caused.

"While the primary purpose of the second letter was to apologise and clarify the error, we also provided ways for people get in touch with us if they needed further reassurance including a web address and the phone number for our customer services team."

Anyone with concerns can call 01902 551177.