Voters in Swindon might be offered a break from having to go to the polls quite so often.

Which might come as a bit of a relief after being asked to turn out in eight elections in the four years since 2015 - local elections in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, general elections in 2015 and 2017, the EU referendum in 2016 and European elections this year as well.

Councillors at Swindon Borough Council are looking at moving the authority's election cycle to once every four years, where all 57 councillors would be up for election, rather than a vote in thirds for three years out of four.

And they want to know what people think about it.

Every house with registered electors across the borough will be getting a letter explaining what the change might mean and a ballot paper to tell councillors whether they prefer all out elections or the current 'in thirds' model.

The head of elections and democracy at Euclid Street, Matt Box said: "The councillors make the final decision at a special meeting in November - and a decision to change will need a two-thirds majority, but they want to know the views of the electors in Swindon.

"This is an opportunity for the people of the borough to have a say on how they vote for their local councillors and I would encourage everyone to take part in the consultation via the postal forms sent to every household and provide feedback so that councillors can understand the views of residents before making their decision.”

Originally, the working group of councillors and officers had said it wanted every single elector in the borough sent a letter and ballot form - which would have cost about £127,000.

That was not followed through because of technical restrictions on the list of voters and GDPR law.

The council's deputy returning officer, Sam Mowbray said: "It will save us money sending one letter just to every household with registered electors, based on a 50 per cent return of the ballots we've budgeted for £80,000."

The ballot is being run by a separate body, Electoral Reform Services, and councillors and officers will only see the collated results, which will not identify anybody, and won't be broken down by ward - just giving a result for the whole of the borough.

Letters will be sent out in the middle of the month - responses by the prepaid envelopes should be sent back by the deadline of October 25.

See swindon.gov.uk/electioncycles for further information