RESIDENTS across the BCP Council area have been warned of changes to its annual canvass.

Every year the council asks all households within the area to check who is eligible to register to vote.

This year between June and September members of the public may receive an email from BCP Council Electoral Services instead with "Act now so BCP Council can check who is eligible to be registered to vote at your address" as the subject.

A spokesman said: "It will ask you to confirm your details at www.householdresponse.com/bcpcouncil and include your security codes and steps on how to access your household details.

"Only those households we hold an email address for will be sent an email. If we do not hold an email address for a property, residents will still be contacted by post."

Matt Pitcher, Head of Elections, Land Charges & Registration Services said: "Using the Government notifying service enables us to quickly contact residents via email for the first time, for those households we hold details on.

"However, this method looks slightly different to our usual correspondence and we would like to reassure you that it is a genuine request from BCP Council to all those wishing to ensure they are registered to vote."