What the media says about me...

"the admirably independent minded Gordon Prentice"

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail, 12 February 2009

MP Calls for Full Disclosure on House with 27 Voters

Tags: Local Government | Press Release | voter registration

Tuesday, 22 April 2008 00:00

Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, has stepped into the row over the 27 voters registered at 214-216 Manchester Road, Nelson, the home of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary hopeful, Afzal Anwar. The MP has been campaigning for years for individual voter registration. At present only one person in a household certifies who is eligible to vote - the so-called head of household. Speaking from Westminster, the MP said: “The Council's Executive Director (Citizen and Community Services), Philip Mousdale, said that he had recently been informed that the property was in fact not one but three separate properties and that the Electoral Register would be amended. This begs a number of questions that now need to be answered without delay or prevarication. First. Who told Philip Mousdale there were three properties and not one and has this been independently verified? If not, why not? When was planning permission sought and granted for the conversions? What is the status of the properties so far as Council Tax is concerned? The MP has tabled a Commons motion which appears on the Order Paper today. ELECTORAL REGISTRATION, PLANNING CONSENT AND COUNCIL TAX BANDS AT 214-216 MANCHESTER ROAD, NELSON That this House notes with concern that, according to the Register of Electors, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Pendle, Afzal Anwar, a barrister, shares the property at 214-216 Manchester Road, Nelson, with another 26 voters; believes the property was originally two terraced houses but was knocked into one; notes the explanation from the Party's election agent, Tony Greaves, that the property is home to the candidate, his father, three brothers, their families and contains 24 bedrooms; further notes that Pendle Council's Executive Director (Citizen and Community Services), Philip Mousdale, stated on 10th April that he had recently been informed that the property was in fact not one but three separate properties and that the Electoral Register would be amended accordingly; further believes that, in the light of these revelations and concerns in 2005 over registrations at the address of the former Liberal Democrat candidate for Parliament, Shazad Anwar, individual voter registration should be brought in without delay as a matter of the greatest urgency to safeguard the integrity of elections; and, in the meantime, calls upon Pendle Council to say who informed Philip Mousdale that the property had been converted and whether this has been independently verified and when planning permission for the conversion of the property at Manchester Road into three separate and self contained units was applied for and granted; and further calls on Pendle Council to disclose which council tax band the three converted properties now fall into and the band or bands that applied before the conversion.