A Maidstone county councillor has been successful in asking KCC to support the lowering of the voting age from 18 to 16.

Loose sub-postmaster, Brian Clark, who represents Maidstone South division for the Lib Dems, submitted a motion to the full council: “This council supports reducing the voting age to 16 and believes that encouraging participation in the political process is a valuable means of engaging young people in modern society.

“We recognise the important contribution of 16 and 17-year-olds to the recent Scottish Independence referendum and believe that the young people of Kent should also play a role in determining the future of their county and country.

“Therefore, we propose that the chairman should write an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to introduce legislation to reduce the voting age to 16.”

The motion was seconded by another Maidstone councillor, Rob Bird (Lib Dem) from Maidstone Central division.

Cllr Clark argued that the country’s 1.5m 16 and 17-year-olds could live on their own, get married, pay taxes and join the army, but they couldn’t vote.

The motion was supported by an overwhelming majority with 56 councillors in favour, 17 against and four abstentions.

Council chairman Peter Homewood will now write to David Cameron asking him to bring about the change.

Find out what young people think here.