Polling booths improvised

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 13

Polling booths improvised

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

Not everything went according to plan for polling officials during voting in the British General Election.

At one Newham polling booth in London, a man destroyed almost 300 votes by setting fire to a ballot box. He poured petrol into the box, lit his own voting paper and thrust it in.

A polling station in Chelsea opened 90 minutes late because the returning officer missed her bus. The police helped early morning attendees cast their votes in a parked car. In the West Country, there was an unusual selection of booths — a bus in Bristol, a tea chalet in Bath and a stable in Foxley, Wiltshire. A scout hut was hastily pressed into service as a polling booth in Rotherham after officials discovered the disused local school they thought they were using had been sold by the local council. Cars featured elsewhere — a boot of one was pressed into service at Lower Sheering, in Essex, while a used car showroom became a polling place in Shroud, Gloucestershire. ‘