The Daily Echo has removed a ballot for readers to vote on the industrial action by union members at Southampton City Council.

This due to one user repeatedly attempting to skew the votes, thus rendering the opinion of other readers irrelevant.

Yesterday alone, over a 200 votes were posted on the ballot by a single user and a new ballot today saw the same user post over 60 votes in less than two minutes.

In fact it would seem the one user is responsible for around 2,500 votes - around 20 per cent of all votes cast.

As such, we will not be running a ballot again on this issue.

While the ballots are not scientific, they are designed to be a barometer of public opinion - abuses such as this undermine that intention.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to readers who used the service legitimately.