A NEW family has moved into Darlington to encourage people to use their postal votes.

Darlington Borough Council has unveiled the cartoon Voters family - Vic, Vince, Vera, Val and Vicky - to promote the all-postal voting system for this year's election. They will appear in advertisements in newspapers and on the radio during April.

Darlington is one of 41 local authorities nationally which have been accepted to take part in the postal voting pilot scheme.

It means that there will be no traditional polling stations this year and instead people will have to return the ballot papers they receive through the post in pre-paid envelopes to cast their vote.