THOUSANDS of people did their democratic duty by voting in the local elections - but apathy and anger towards politicians of all parties may have affected the turnout.

Residents carefully picked up to five parish councillors and one borough councillor who they thought deserved to join or keep their place in politics.

Swindon Borough Council set up polling stations all over town in the usual primary schools, libraries and community centres - and even a Blunsdon pub. The Jovial Monk offered voters the chance to have a pint at the polls when it hosted a polling station in its conservatory, opening early to let locals pop in from 7am.

While a stream of visitors came round to put crosses in boxes, punter Alistair Walshe, 61, was just cross.

He said: "This is the first time I've ever intentionally not voted. I don't think the turnout will be very good, a lot of people are fed up with councillors and MPs in all the different parties, they're all as bad as each other, none of them listen to the people, they just do what they want to do.

"I used to be pro-Conservative but not any more, and I would not vote for the other parties, especially not Labour while Jeremy Corbyn's their leader."

Peter Wallace from Blunsdon had the opposite view: "There does seem to be a lot of people, including several of my friends, thinking 'oh what's the point?' and 'it won't make a difference'. While I understand their frustration, I dislike apathy and do get annoyed when people don't vote, I think it displays a sort of laziness.

"If you don't vote, you don't get a say and you can't complain or blame anyone if you don't like who's in charge. It's a good idea to take an interest in local, national and EU elections, it just makes sense. I went to Australia for a few years before coming back to Swindon and it's compulsory to vote there, you get fined if you don't."

The Jovial Monk's landlady Debbie Young said: "There's no community centre in this area so we try to be more like a local hub for the people who live here by hosting events in the conservatory.

"When the council approached me about the elections, I thought it was a brilliant idea to have a polling station here, it should be more common, and we'll be doing it again for the European elections later this month.

"There was a constant flow of people in and out of the conservatory, a couple of people said they didn't even know we were here before. It was busy when people stopped by on the way home from work and a few had dinner after they voted."