WEYMOUTH West voters who have had to travel outside their area to vote could be found a new venue – but not in time for the December 12 election.

Around 1,400 voters from the ward had to vote at the Scout hut on Rylands Lane, outside the ward, after alternative polling stations were unavailable at the May 2019 elections.

Local councillor Brian Heatley told a Dorset Council meeting that having to travel outside the ward contravened guidelines which suggest that polling stations should be allocated centrally to residential areas to keep travel to a minimum.

He said that a council paper on future voting arrangement now suggested that because turnout from the polling district was relatively high in the May 2019 election when there was no polling station in the ward, it had been concluded, wrongly, that voters were prepared to travel further and the situation should stay the same.

“Turnout did hold up, but an alternative explanation is that this is a ward where there has been a very lively political contest in most recent years,” he said.

“Please could you reconsider this decision and undertake to make a serious effort to find a new polling station in a large polling district which on the face of it contains a number of alternative possibilities?” he asked.

Cllr Spencer Flower, leader of council, said that electors in the ward had previously voted at St Nicholas Church Hall in Buxton Road, but when this became unavailable, an alternative was found, only to be informed, not long before the poll in May that the venue had closed.

“The decision was made that due to the short notice to make other arrangements, the polling station would be moved to the Weymouth South Scout HQ on Rylands Lane, just outside of the polling district…

“However, as turnout was actually higher at the May elections than in previous polls during the last few years, and no complaints had been received from electors in respect of this polling station, no changes were proposed,” he said.

Cllr Flower said that the council would review again the arrangements for the polling district in the New Year to see if a suitable alternative venue could be found.