Council apologises for election date leaflet error

The leaflet incorrectly states elections will be held on 2 May 2023

A council has admitted sending out 109,000 leaflets which contained the wrong date for a forthcoming election.

The error appeared on the back page of a Coventry City Council pamphlet which explains how council tax is spent.

The leaflet gives the date for the upcoming local elections as 2 May 2023 – which is the correct day and month, but not the right year.

The council apologised for the mistake, which it said was a typo, and confirmed all other information contained in the leaflet was correct.

'Pretty major leaflet'

The authority said the booklets were sent out at a cost of £4,200 and added that the correct date had subsequently been published in other communications – including the most recent Citivision magazine.

The issue was raised by Conservative councillor Tim Sawdon at a full council meeting on Tuesday.

He told the BBC afterwards: “It’s a pretty major leaflet when you send out your council tax demands.”

Mr Sawdon said the council’s cabinet member for finance, Richard Brown, was surprised to be told of the error.

“He said he would correct it, but quite how he’s going to correct I don’t know – I hope he’s not going to send them all out again – it would be an enormous cost,” said Mr Sawdon.

Mr Brown said he had not proofread the leaflet himself.

A spokesperson for Coventry City Council said: “We regret that a small typo appeared in a four-page leaflet that accompanied council tax bill letters.

“More than 80% of this leaflet was to detail how council tax money is spent and to make people aware of the cost-of-living support that is available to residents.

“The typo was in a small section reminding people that photographic ID is needed for people voting at a polling station.”

They added that the correct year had been publicised on the council website, social media and other materials it had produced.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.