A PUBLIC consultation into postal voting for this year's European and local elections has been extended.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister committee has set up the consultation to find out what people thought of postal voting and how it could affect turnout, cost or electoral fraud.

People in the North West are being asked to cast their vote using the postal system for European and local elections on June 10.

The deadline for comments about this arrangement was originally February 13 but written evidence is now being accepted until March 1.

Libby Preston from the ODPM said the extension was introduced because an e-mail to the media about the inquiry had failed to reach some press - so not many people knew about the inquiry.

She added: "The committee has therefore extended the deadline until Monday, March 1. We appreciate this is a short deadline, we have only recently become aware of the problem."