Alas, I could not vote for singer!

JUDITH Hardy and Suzanne Taylor from North Norfolk District Council got our vote in last Thursday's elections.

With just three days to go, I realised that my partner wouldn't make it to our polling station as he was unexpectedly stuck in the Norfolk and Norwich. Could I vote on his behalf?

The district council's website told me we'd missed the date to register for a postal or proxy vote, but there was one remaining possibility - an 'emergency proxy vote', due to his special circumstances.

So I e-mailed the council's electoral services department, cautiously aware they would be working flat out to cope with the imminent big day. Despite being up to her neck in postal votes, Judy sprang into action on our behalf.

She immediately phoned to explain the complex procedure to me, rang my partner on his hospital bedside phone, and dispatched forms to him marked 'first class and urgent.'

Unfortunately Royal Mail weren't quite as co-operative and the envelope didn't reach him 'til lunchtime on Wednesday - a few hours before the polling booths opened.

With the clock ticking, I drove to the hospital, collected the completed forms from him and arrived with them at NNDC's Cromer offices around mid-afternoon.

Smiling Judy hurried through from her office, took my bundle of documents and disappeared. Without further ado, she and Suzanne then set about getting the necessary authorisation. Some half an hour later Judy re-emerged clutching our official letters of approval.

We were hugely impressed, and grateful to these ladies for their 'can do' attitude and the trouble they took to ensure that every possible voter got to take part in the democratic process.

Just one drawback - when I finally stood, pencil-poised, over my four voting forms, I couldn't find Susan Boyle's name on any of them.