Former village hall now a green area and pond wrongly listed as polling station again

The news was shared by local councillor John Blackall, who said the address shown was for the old village hall, which is now ‘a landscape area and a pond’, rather than the new one.

Mr Blackall told a Horsham District Council meeting: “I just hope with the elections coming next year we get the polling cards changed.”

The council will be carrying out a ‘mini-review’ of its polling stations in time for May’s Police & Crime Commissioner elections, to ensure they have enough and they are in the right places.

Andrew Baldwin (Con, Holbrook East) told the meeting one change had been made following the last review, in the autumn, with a polling station added for the Kilnwood Vale estate so people didn’t have to ‘trek to Faygate’ to vote.

Looking at this latest review, Mr Baldwin added: “What we’re trying to do is to try to stop using schools as polling stations if we can.

“At Billingshurst in particular there is an issue because the primary school doesn’t want to be used as a polling station, so we’re hoping we can find an alternative venue.”

This should be good news for headteacher Helen Williamson, who recently spoke about the ‘burden’ of her school being used and has already called on the council to find somewhere else.