People are to be bribed to vote in local elections by being entered for a “prize draw” if they turn up at the polling station, ministers announced yesterday.

After a series of dismal turnouts in recent elections people will be able to win televisions, iPods or supermarket vouchers once they fill in their ballot papers. The proposal is similar to schemes in America, where voters are rewarded with doughnuts and chicken dinners if they cast their ballot.

The move is one of a series of measures outlined by Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, to boost local democracy and “empower” communities. Other proposals in the White Paper Communities in Control will make it easier to hold a referendum for a directly elected mayor and will force town halls to respond to petitions. Local neighbourhoods will also be given “community kitties” worth millions of pounds where improvements are needed to council sevices.

“In many parts of the country, local democracy needs a boost, with low turnout at local elections and people feeling they can’t influence the way issues are decided in their area,” said Ms Blears in a Commons statement.

“The White Paper provides real and practical ways to put communities in control, so that they can find out first-hand what is being done to improve their local services, and push any issue they think is of importance up the priority list of their local council.”

The document is said to have been watered down by Downing Street. One of the most radical ideas that was dropped was to allow the public to “recall” MPs and hold a by-election where there were probity issues. This was eventually quashed by Harriet Harman, the deputy Prime Minister, and Gordon Brown.

Other ideas that were vetoed included setting fixed terms for councillors and allowing councils to pilot proportional representation.

The Prime Minister, who has never been keen on elected mayors, has agreed to relax the trigger for adopting the scheme.

At the moment a city, town or borough can hold a referendum for an elected mayor if a petition is signed by 5 per cent of the local population.

Under the proposals this could be reduced to 2 per cent and people will be able to sign mayoral petitions online. The length of time between an unsuccessful referendum and a second bid will drop from ten to four years.

Tony Blair tried to improve town hall leadership by setting up American-style directly elected mayors soon after he came to power.

There have also been a number of public campaigns to scrap elected mayors in four out of the 12 councils where they operate, with residents unhappy about high salaries and autocracy.

Ms Blears also announced steps to increase people’s power to change policy in topics such as drug dealing, antisocial behaviour and rubbish collection. In future town halls will be forced to act on all local petitions.

At present local councils can ignore petitions, however many people have signed them. Under the new proposals councils will be required legally to respond, irrespective of how many signatures are on the petition. If more than 5 per cent of the population has signed the petition a council must hold a full debate on the issue.

The Local Government Assocation is opposed to the idea, arguing that it could allow minority groups, such as the BNP, powers to change policy.

The White Paper also proposed allowing resident groups to have access to community kitties worth between £5,000 and £2.5 million to spend on local services such as play areas and traffic calming schemes. Other measures include setting up public hearings where senior public officials such as chief constables, hospital managers and school heads will be held to account.

Ms Blears will also announce the abolition of the “Widdecombe” rule, which forbids council staff from standing as councillors if they earn over £33,000. Under the latest regulations all but the most senior town hall officials will be able to stand for election as councillors and continue in their job if they are elected.

Eric Pickles, Shadow Communities Secretary, said: “These policies are the product of a bankrupt Labour Party, wanting to stuff more cash into the pockets of Labour councillors, bribe their voters, bring back jobs for the boys and slip in backdoor state funding.”

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