ONE of North Yorkshire’s more out-of-the-ordinary polling stations has been unveiled ahead of next month’s local elections.

Residents casting their votes in the Ryedale village of Scrayingham will be able to do so in grand surroundings as the hallway of a historic house, complete with panelled walls and chandeliers, becomes an election base.

The polling station will be opened up at The Old Rectory on May 5 as part of Ryedale District Council’s aim of providing voters in rural areas with convenient sites to have their say about who should represent them on the authority, as well as in a referendum on a new system for electing MPs.

Former farm buildings in a courtyard at Nunnington, on the edge of the North York Moors, will also be used as a polling station, having recently been refurbished as a community facility known as Manor Farm meeting rooms.

Ryedale officials are hoping the district maintains its high turnout record from the last elections, when more than 51 per cent of residents cast their vote.