SOME of the borough's polling stations are too far away and too difficult for voters to get to using public transport say councillors and MPs.

Swindon Borough Council is looking at a review of districts and the locations used for elections and has published the responses it has received.

The authority says it has carried out the survey to make sure stations are in the right place. A spokesman said: “The reason for this review is to ensure that all electors within the Borough of Swindon have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable and to ensure that polling stations are accessible to all electors, including those with special needs.”

Some stations were thought to have specific issues. Wroughton councillors Cathy Martyn and Brian Ford, and South Swindon MP Robert Buckland said of Ellendune Community Centre: “The bus service is not great, Priors Hill has no pavement so electors from Alexandra Park

Having to go to the Ellendune puts these voters at a disadvantage, particularly if they do not have their own transport. I suggest a polling station at Alexandra House Hotel, at the shop unit on Whittington Drive or a mobile unit.”

The response by the authority’s returning officer, chief executive Susie Kemp, said neither a mobile unit nor a station at the shops would be suitable, but did suggest a polling station would work at the hotel.

In Badbury Park, South Swindon Parish councillor William Horley asked for a new station to be created at Richard Jefferies Museum because Liddington Village Hall is hard to reach: “In the newest part of the Badbury Park development, some roads are part of the Ridgeway Ward and vote at Liddington Village Hall, two and a half miles away. Residents who don’t have cars or have mobility issues, will have difficulty getting to the hall, as the bus service is very limited and lengthy. This has a disenfranchising effect.”

Ms Kemp has agreed to creating a new polling station for those voters at the museum.

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson suggested voters living in Abbey Farm, St Andrews could more easily use the new polling station set up at the Jovial Monk pub than going to Tadpole Farm School.

That suggestion was rejected.