Voters in three of the five wards in Aberystwyth will be using new polling stations for European Election Day on June 4th.
Bronglais Ward moves from the traditional Buarth Hall to the Morlan (pictured), on the corner of Queens Road and North Parade, where residents will vote alongside those from North Ward who used this venue for the first time at the Council elections last year.
Voters in Central and Rheidol wards will both move from their previous locations to share the Day Centre in Park Avenue. Penparcau's Polling Station will remain at the Neuadd Goffa.
Ceredigion Council say the main reason for the switch is to save around £800 by combining wards. In addition the new venues are more modern and will comply more easily with disability regulations.
However the new venues weren't agreed without a struggle. The Council's original idea, at the request of a Lib Dem Cabinet member, was to combine Bronglais and Rheidol wards at the Park Avenue Day Centre with the Morlan instead being used by Central and North wards. This would have left my own Bronglais ward voters, and them alone, with a trek across two wards to the other side of town - an obvious discrouragement to vote. The new arrangements for June 4th are supposed to be a dry run for the usually much busier General Election. Given that Bronglais ward contains the highest proportion of Plaid Cymru voters in town and the majority of Ceredigion's Lib Dem MP is wafer-thin, some people began using phrases like George Bush and Florida 2004 to describe the plans. After the point was made, thankfully sense prevailed and polling stations in the town will now be on the shared borders of the combining wards.
Although the new venues are on everyone's polling cards, doubtless many people will still turn up at their traditional polling stations so notices and directions will be put in place.