Everybody in Abingdon should already have got a letter about voting in the forthcoming elections for parliament, district council, and town council.
1. Postal Vote
The quickest and easiest way is to vote by post. To do so you need to register by 5pm on Tuesday 21 April 2015 – for an application form see www.southandvale.gov.uk.
2. Polling station.
About three weeks before election day you will be sent your official poll card and details of your polling station. To cast your vote at your polling station you need to do so between 7am and 10pm on Thursday 7 May 2015.
Polling stations are:
The Guildhall
Hadland Road Community Centre
Preston Road Community Centre
Long Furlong Community Centre
Scout Hut Farm Road
Northcourt Centre
Abingdon United Football Club
All Saints Methodist Church
St Johns Ambulance Headquarters
Jephson Common Room (may now be called Stonewater Common Room)
North East Abingdon Community Centre
3. Proxy
You can also ask a friend or family member to make the trip to the polling station or return a postal vote on your behalf. To find out more visit: www.southandvale.gov.uk or call 01235 540310. Applications must be received by Tuesday 28 April 2015.
If you miss this chance to vote the next one will be May 2019 for town and district, and May 2020 for national elections, by which time there will be a lot more water under the bridge.
Do I remember correctly that a number of postal votes went missing for Abingdon in 2010, and rather than a recount, once found…they were just ignored?
Can the same happen again?
Is Trinity not a Polling station this time – I’ll have further to walk! (I know it’s good for me though).
If only there was someone worth voting for.
Someone who would actually represent Abingdon’s needs, rather than their own party line,
Someone who could actually make a difference for us.
For the first time in my life I am wishing there was a ‘non of the above’ category.
They are all as hopeless as each other. 🙁
I want to vote for someone who is visible in Abingdon and takes time to engage with residents – very few people come knocking my door telling me what they can do for the local community. Generalising, ‘they’ only seem to be visible when a TV camera is around …
I think Trinity was on the last list of polling stations I saw.
Thats me and the wife on our first Kayak outing of 2015!! Nice shot.
@lyle: If you feel that strongly that none of the candidates are worth voting for, why don’t you stand as an independent candidate yourself? You have until 9th April to register to be a candidate. See information at http://www.beacouncillor.org.uk
If I wasn’t leaving Abingdon at the end of April I most certainly would have thrown my hat in the ring.
To be honest, I was really referring to the ‘big’ election, not the local/council ones.
I dont really fancy a change of career to be an MP, but equally, having observed the total lack of any attention or weight being paid to our local councillors views, (assuming they arent on message), eg planning on Drayton road as the latest example, I really cant see the point there.
It seems we are ‘ruled’ by a bunch of self interested politicos in Westminster, and a bunch of self serving civil servants in the Vale.
It seems the local councillors are just there to keep us masses in check, and believe we can actually affect anything, when in fact its already been decided.
‘Non of the above’ isnt a real answer, but right now, I really dont know what is..
Disaffected of Abingdon 🙁
ps, obviously the solution is to build a monorail.. 🙂
“None of the above” does at least indicate that the voter was committed enough to turn up at the polling booth or equivalent!
I have only just caught up with this story and the information given is incorrect – I have no idea from where it was sourced. Trinity Church Hall is indeed being used as a polling place and will actually host two polling stations on May 7. There will be no polling station at Abingdon United Football Club.
Because all of the district ward boundaries in Abingdon have changed quite a number of people will be voting at a different polling station from previously so I urge everyone to check their poll card when it arrives to make sure they go to the right location.
Re the comment about postal votes, none were lost in 2010. It’s a good line, but totally without foundation. In 2011, we had difficulties with our printer and some postal votes were issued very late but all that were returned by polling day were counted. We now use a different printer and have had no issues with postal votes since. I hope readers find this reassuring. It is the easiest way to cast your vote and will avoid any risk of having to queue in a polling station.
David Buckle, Returning Officer