LABOUR candidates in Southamp-ton have resorted to targeting the large Polish community in the city for extra votes.

Keen to attract new supporters and boost turnout they have printed up campaign literature in Polish.

They hope it will swing seats their way in heavily Polish settled wards such Shirley, Freemantle and Portswood, where Conser-vatives and Liberal Democrats are facing re-election.

The wards have turnouts of less than 35 per cent and majorities of as little as 450 votes.

Bitterne councillor and Labour spokesman Matt Stevens, who is facing re-election, said: "If you live somewhere and are using and accessing local services then surely you have a right to exert your opinion on those things."

Liberal Democrat council leader Adrian Vinson welcomed any move toward higher voter turnout.

"It's an important part of the process that everybody gets involved," he said.

"One of the most depressing things is the relatively low turnout in local elections. What the council does in terms of services and council tax impacts all those who live in our local area."

Conservatives said they would rather address the problems caused by the arrival of the new wave of European migrants.

Tory leader councillor Alec Samuels, who is fighting re-election in Bassett, pointed to housing shortages, the number of unemployed local residents and pressures on the health service.

Some estimates suggest more than 20,000 eastern Europeans are living in the city, which has a population of about 222,000.

The council says it does not have exact figures but reckons the number of Polish migrants is more likely between 8,000 and 10,000, rising to 12,000 if including all new east European communities.

Under election law European Union citizens living in the UK who are 16 and over and from EU countries, including Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, are entitled to register to vote.

A spokesman for Southampton City Council said it could not say how many Poles were registered to vote because it could not extract nationality information from its computerised election database.