MANY young voters are preparing to have their say for the first time in today's elections.

More than 1,000 people signed up to vote in Craven during the last weeks of registration, many of them young and first-time voters.

Hannah Wray, 18, is an apprentice in the Business Support Team at Craven District Council. She will be voting for the first time today.

“I think it’s really important to vote – it determines our future as young people,” she said.

“Most of my friends aren’t voting though – some aren’t old enough and some just aren’t interested.”

But she encouraged others to get out there and use their vote. “The whole idea of being able to vote at 18 is so that we can choose who we want to run our country for the future and for the future of our children,” said Hannah.

Paul Shevlin, Craven District Council chief executive and acting returning officer, said: “I would encourage everyone who can, to turn out and vote – young and old, every vote counts.”

Thousands of people in Craven have already voted with postal votes. These seem to have been largely unaffected by the small delay to papers being sent out, which was due to unexpected problems with the printers.

Mr Shevlin said: “We are sorry that a very small number of people may have been adversely affected by the postal vote delay but this has been beyond our control.

“We have made strenuous efforts to assist people who expressed concern about being unable to vote due to the delay. We have already received thousands of returned postal votes and expect the turnout to be higher than the last election.”

Residents are reminded to check their voting cards to make sure they know where to cast their vote.

The General Election and a number of local district and parish elections take place today.

Most polling stations are the same as last year, but there have been a couple of changes so electors need to check where they will be voting on their poll cards.

In Skipton North there is a new polling station at Craven Leisure Centre and the Town Hall is also returning to use as a polling station.

In Skipton West a new polling station at the Champions Church, Carleton Road will serve the Burnside and Carleton New Road areas.

The Parliamentary count for the Skipton and Ripon constituency will take place overnight in Skipton Town Hall, with a result expected to be declared around 2am tomorrow morning.

District and Parish Council elections are also taking place in some areas of the district. These will be counted tomorrow afternoon, following verification tonight.

For full details of district and parish council elections taking place in the Craven District and how to vote, see the council website www.cravendc.gov.uk under Council and Democracy, Elections.