PLANS to move one of the town’s polling stations has been knocked back, along with others countywide, following claims they went against what locals wanted.

A proposal put before Herefordshire councillors last week would have moved around 15 of the county’s polling places, for various reasons.

Seeking the backing of fellow councillors, council chairman Roger Phillips said it was “important we get this done in case there are any elections”, adding: “There can be parish or ward elections any time.”

His Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Chris Bartram said he could not support the motion as a ‘perfectly reasonable’ suggestion to locate a polling station in a community centre in a new estate at St Mary’s Garden village in Ross had also been rejected.

At a recent Ross Town Council meeting Cllr Daniel Lister said: “With the continued expansion of St Mary’s, the polling station at the swimming pool is not local enough and moving to the new community centre makes sense.

Cllr Ed O’Driscoll said that the ideal scenario would be that instead of moving a polling station, the authority should create a new polling station based where the population live.

“Even if this creates staffing issues, that’s a separate issue, but we should request what we need.”

Mayor Cllr Bev Pope agreed and said: “We shouldn’t have the residents of St Mary’s driving to a polling station when it should be located more locally.

At last week’s Herefordshire Council meeting Cllr Kevin Tillett said the proposal to reject moving the polling stations ‘should be sent back to the drawing board’, adding: “What is the point of a consultation where so many people have been ignored?”

The chairman then proposed that the rejig of polling stations be ‘revisited’, with members getting prior sight of any changes before being asked to approve them.

The motion was passed unanimously.