Cheshire East’s leader is calling on the government to delay plans to make photo ID mandatory at May’s local elections amid fears of disenfranchising voters and because of the huge cost.

Cllr Sam Corcoran was responding to a question from Cllr Connor Naismith, who raised concerns that voters will be required to produce photo ID at polling stations in May.

“I wondered if the leader of the council can tell me what plans the council has to mitigate the impact of voters potentially being disenfranchised by this?” the Labour councillor asked at the full meeting of Cheshire East Council.

Cllr Corcoran said it was important the council informed all residents that, under current government plans, voters will have to produce photo ID to vote in the May 2023 elections.

He added: “In terms of who this will affect, I think it will disproportionately affect younger people who might not have photo driving licences or passports and therefore we need to be mindful of the demographics in getting our message out there.”

He said the cross-party Local Government Association (LGA) had asked for the implementation to be postponed because it will be a very difficult administrative task to implement it by May 2023.

“It will also be an expensive task to implement it,” said the council leader. “And why an extra responsibility has been put on local councils and an extra added financial burden is being put on the public purse at this time is a surprise to me, particularly as it's tackling a problem that doesn't really exist. There is very little voter fraud in this country.”

He said there was normally an expectation of six months’ notice being given of major changes and the government hadn’t provided the council with detailed legislation yet, even though it was less than six months to the elections.

“So I will strongly support the LGA’s call that these proposals should be delayed,” said Cllr Corcoran.