Councillor Edgar: '˜We need to do it right'

Despite the apparent strong support of people who voted in the straw poll for the bypass, a Selkirkshire councillor is keen to back the result up by holding a secret ballot.
Gordon EdgarGordon Edgar
Gordon Edgar

Councillor Gordon Edgar wants to make sure there can be no doubt about the level of support in the town for a bypass.

He told us: “It would have been better if the Selkirk Regeneration Company had talked to us first before organising a straw poll.

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“There is a possibility that people might not have wanted to sign their name against a bypass when there were so many people there voting for it.

“The only way to properly gauge public opinion is through a secret ballot.”

So he has organised for ballot boxes to be based around the town over the last two weeks in August, and has asked the Wee Paper to print ballot papers over these two weeks.

The Wee Paper has agreed to do this – the ballot papers will appear in the paper in two weeks’ time (August 19).

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The Wee Paper has also offered for its offices to be used in the count, which is pencilled in for Friday, September 2 – when we would film and publish the result on our webpage.

Mr Edgar said: “If the result is as strongly in favour of the bypass as the straw poll was, there will be a strong case, but it has to be done correctly.”