A WOODBURY activist backing a change in the voting system next month has seen his efforts sabotaged after campaign posters in the village were repeatedly torn down.

A WOODBURY activist backing a change in the voting system next month has seen his efforts sabotaged after campaign posters in the village were repeatedly torn down.

Businessman Peter Thornton, an ex-director of Thorntons and lifelong advocate for a change from the first-past-the-post electoral system to the ‘alternative vote’ has been surprised by the rapid disappearance of posters advocating a Yes Vote on May 5.

Two weeks ago Mr Thornton organised a meeting in his local pub, the White Hart in Woodbury .

But after asking the landlady over the effectiveness of the posters announcing the meeting she had put up in the pub, he found that all three notices had been ripped down.

Mr Thornton then put up a huge ‘Vote Yes’ sign, measuring one metre-squared, three metres off the ground and nailed securely down in front of a friend’s house on Globe Hill – however the next morning the sign had been ripped down and removed.

He said: “It seems to be symbolic of the paucity of arguments of those who wish to see the referendum motion defeated that such methods of opposition should be used.”

Thornton asks supporters in the Woodbury area who would like to help with the campaign to call him on 07836 212713 or e-mail peter@thornton-asc.co.uk.