TWO weeks before the local council elections, an expensive-looking pamphlet dropped on to the mat. I felt obliged to study it - after all, the document could contain vital information in light of the coming poll.

Your Guide To The Local Elections 2007 certainly started with a fanfare of trumpets. On the cover, a fancy bit of artwork made the tantalising claim that "it will take one person two minutes on the third of May to change the next four years".

The next few pages then gave the reader a lesson in social history before explaining the role of a local council, giving a few tips on how to vote and then rounded off with a cheery, optimistic account of how the authorities were most definitely on the case as far as electoral fraud was concerned.

I'm glad to hear it - perhaps lessons have been learnt since the votes-rigging racket in Birmingham was rumbled.

However, the Pinnochio Memorial Cup must surely be dusted down in the light of the next gushing claim - "that the local council makes planning decisions everything from building an extension to your house to major developments are decided by elected councillors".

The first bit may be true - but any idea that local councillors decide on the really big projects is pure pie in the sky.

The authors of this slick piece of copy-writing seem to have forgotten that up to 17,600 houses are presently earmarked for Worcester, and while local authorities are permitted to consult' the public, the final decision rests with an unelected regional assembly.

And that, my friends, is the greatest electoral fraud of all.