EARLY signs are that the good citizens of Kirklees are not exactly flocking to the postboxes to cast their votes in gratitude for this year's new-fangled system.

So far it seems only 37,000 of 285,000 ballot forms sent out have made the return journey.

The somewhat costly pilot scheme, intended to beef up electoral response, at this moment looks like being a severe disappointment.

Given that in previous tests postal voting had looked rather promising, we have to ask why.

Maybe the bank holiday and a certain sporting occasion in Cardiff diverted attention, perhaps some are a little confused by the new system, others say that barcodes on ballot papers make it possible to trace how each individual votes.

But surely the biggest reason has to be the somewhat rushed and botched exercise which the Government has insisted on introducing in the teeth of experts who have warned otherwise.

The fact is that voters need plenty of time to get used to a new system. Other parts where the pilot scheme is being tried have difficulties even getting the forms printed and delivered on time.

For now the message to the voters is that there is plenty of time to get your vote in by polling day, Thursday, June 10.

If you are popping the envelope in the post that makes the Tuesday of next week the last date for posting.

And even after the Tuesday you could still take your envelope to a number of council offices which will be open until 10pm on the Thursday.

But, of course, in a way that rather defeats the object of the postal voting exercise.

Platform row

OUR sympathies are with the Marsden railway station protesters who are angry that trains are once again using the unpopular platform two.

Last September passengers thought they had won a victory when First North Western agreed to stop using the platform with a 2ft gap from train to ground after a 74-year-old woman was injured there.

At the time the operators were said to have done a U-turn and agreed to use another platform. But last month services from Huddersfield to and from Manchester Victoria switched back to platform two.

Not so much a U-turn, more an S-bend.