VOTER numbers in one Oxford ward have dropped by almost 60 per cent under the new registration system.

Oxford has seen a 10 per cent decrease overall in the number of registered voters under the scheme where each resident of a property must sign up to vote individually rather than the old system where one resident could name all occupants.

The biggest drop in a single council ward was in Hollywell, which covers the eastern half of Oxford city centre, where the number of registered voters dropped by 59 per cent from 4,027 to 1,641.

There was also a large drop in Carfax ward, where numbers on the register fell by 38 per cent to 2,591.

 

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Students make up 95 per cent of Hollywell’s population and a high proportion in Carfax.

In September, Labour candidate Alex Hollingsworth was elected to Oxford City Council with 168 votes in a Carfax by-election which saw a turnout of just 8.6 per cent. The poll took place when most students were away from the city.

Council leader Bob Price said it would work with both city universities to try to increase the number of students signed up to vote.

He said: “We should redouble our efforts to get universities to register students as electors at the same time as they register as students – that seems to be the most sensible measure.

“Otherwise people who are here for quite a significant part of the year will have no say in the things which affect them when they live here. The old system had its deficiencies but they could have been tackled in a more effective way than this.”

Oxford Brookes Students’ Union campaigns manager Jim Robbins said a survey showed 55 per cent of the university’s students were planning to vote and 45 per cent were registered at their home address, rather than in Oxford.

Mr Robbins said that the council had been along to freshers’ events and a social media campaign had also been targeting students.

At its height Oxford’s total student occupation is about 35,000.

The 2011 census recorded a total city population of 151,900.

There was a 2.27 per cent drop across the county, with a fall in the number of people registered from 497,789 in February to 486,463.

Oxford City Council saw the largest decrease of all the districts overall, with numbers falling from 111,863 to 99,729 voters, an 11 per cent drop.

West Oxfordshire and Cherwell also saw registrations drop.

Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire saw small increases.

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