POLLING stations in Ryedale are to come under the spotlight from the district council.

Its overview and scrutiny committee made the decision after the chairwoman, Coun Pamela Anderson, said there had been concerns at the recent local elections that some stations were inaccessible and remote, and as a result voting turnouts had been low in certain areas.

Coun Howard Keal said: "Anything which can done to make it easier for people to vote, the better."

He said the council also needed to look at increasing postal voting and introducing online voting. He would support the retention of traditional polling stations, but suggested they could be "novel".

In some areas stations have been set up in such places as supermarkets.

Coun Natalie Warriner, who questioned the high cost of using traditional voting methods, said that in some metropolitan districts where there had been postal voting the response from the electorate had been as high as 48 per cent.

Updated: 10:18 Friday, June 13, 2003