19th century castle is among the more unusual polling station venues for voters in Cornwall

A 19th century Cornish castle, village primary schools, community centres and even a garage are among the hundreds of polling stations which voters in Cornwall will be using to cast their votes at the forthcoming general election.

Staff from Cornwall Council's elections service have identified around 450 buildings which will be used as polling stations in the general election. Most are village and church halls, schools and community centres - but there is also the odd caravan and portacabin, a garage and, of course, the Cornish castle!!

The castle in question is Caerhays castle, an English Heritage Grade 1 Listed Building in Gorran which was built by the famous architect John Nash for the Trevanion family in the early 1800's. The estate was bought by the Williams family in 1853 and is now home to Julian Williams and his family.

"Finding suitable polling stations in a rural area like Cornwall can be a very challenging task" said Cornwall Council's Election Services Manager Denise Holwill. "They have to meet a strict set of criteria, including being accessible to people with disabilities. This is why we usually use public buildings such as schools, village halls and community centres.

"Obviously a 19th century castle is a little different from the normal venue and we are very grateful to the Williams family for giving their permission for the Carehays estate to be used for this purpose".

The Council has recruited around 1,000 Presiding Officers and Polling Clerks to run the polling stations, of which around 60 will be carrying out the role for their first time. In addition to this the Election Service is recruiting around 400 Count Assistant and 250 Postal Voting Assistants, all of whom will receive special training over the next few weeks.

Earlier this week Returning Officer Kevin Lavery announced that the count and declaration for five out of the six parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will take place after the close of polls on the Thursday evening. The count for the St Ives and Isles of Scilly constituency will take place on the Friday to allow time for the ballot boxes to be transferred from the off islands back to the mainland.

This decision means a very busy time for everyone connected with running the election.

"The staff will arrive at their polling stations by 6.30am and then set up the room ready to open by 7am prompt" explained Denise Holwill. "At the end of the day they must close the station at 10pm, prepare their paperwork and then deliver the ballot box and packages to either a collection point or direct to the count venue, depending on distances involved".

There are two count centres in Cornwall - each of which will house the counts for three parliamentary constituencies.

The count for the constituencies of St Ives, Camborne and Redruth and Truro and Falmouth will be held at the Carn Brea leisure centre in Pool, while the count for the constituencies of St Austell and Newquay, North Cornwall and South East Cornwall will be held at the Falcon Ridge Sports Academy located in Dobwalls.

The verification of votes will begin as soon as the boxes arrive from the stations, with the first one expected at around 10.15pm. The final boxes from polling stations in Cornwall are expected to arrive around midnight.

All returned postal votes must be opened and the accompanying statement scanned before the ballot paper is taken to the count centres to be mixed in with votes cast at the polling stations (a legal requirement). This work will be carried out at the Liskeard and Camborne offices and is expected to be completed around 3 am on the Friday morning.

The counts, which involve sorting the votes cast between the different candidates and looking for doubtful ballot papers, will begin once the postal and polling station votes have been joined together (around 3 am).

The counts are expected to be completed by 6am but with three constituencies to declare in each centre there could well be a queue to get on the formal declaration stage!!

"The Council's Electoral Services core team will be on duty from 6am on the Thursday morning until the count is declared and the official paperwork has been completed" said Denise Holwill.

There will be a fresh team of count staff brought in for the St Ives count which will begin at 9 am to get the process started before the papers arrive from the Isles of Scilly.

News kindly provided by Cornwall Council.

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