Cornwall could be one of the first places in the country to allow voting at 16.

In an extremely close vote of Cornwall councillors, it was agreed that the council will ask the Government to allow them to lower the age of voting to 16 at the 2021 Cornwall Council elections.

If agreed the county would be a pilot area for a lower voting age.

The motion was put forward by the Liberal Democrat party, headed by party leader Malcolm Brown.

It split the council, with 54 councillors in favour and 50 against, plus three abstentions.

A statement from the Lib Dem party afterwards said that all Liberal Democrat, Labour and Mebyon Kernow councillors present voted to support the the motion, but that every Conservative councillor voted against it. The Independent councillors were split.

Malcolm Brown, leader of the Liberal Democrat Group who proposed the motion, said: "I am delighted that the majority of councillors supported greater democracy in this country and showed their faith in our young people.

"We have confidence in them and in their parents and teachers who have brought them up so well that they deserve the right to vote.

"Young people have recently shown greater awareness of vital issues like the climate emergency than many of their elders. Sadly, they are also the age group likely to be affected worst by the Covid pandemic."