PUBS, caravans, farm buildings and a living room will all take on a political role next month as they welcome North Yorkshire voters.

They are among the more unusual venues chosen as polling stations for the local elections on May 5.

Ryedale District Council has unveiled two new sites for residents to cast their votes, with one being the Old Rectory in Scrayingham, near Stamford Bridge, an historic house where the hallway and front room will become a hive of election activity.

A polling station will also be set up among former agricultural buildings at Nunnington, near the North York Moors, as the council looks to provide convenient sites for voters in rural areas and maintain its recent turnout record, which saw 51 per cent of the population vote in the last district elections.

Both venues will be open from 7am until 10pm on May 5 along with other stations throughout the district, with people also taking part in a national referendum on whether a new system for electing MPs should be introduced.

Ryedale returning officer Janet Waggott said: “It is vital that people are able to vote in the area in which they live and we make use of every facility which is available in the community.”

The Selby District Council election will see polling stations based at a caravan in Biggin and a mobile library in Newton Kyme.

A spokesman for the authority said: “As a rural district, we have to be a bit inventive about what we use, and we need to ensure people have easy access to a local polling station in every area.”

York will have 88 polling stations, including a mobile unit outside the Red Lion pub in Knapton, the York Auction Centre at Murton, the St Nicholas Fields nature reserve and at the University of York’s Vanburgh College.

Two pubs, the Buck Inn at Thornton Watlass, near Ripon, and the White Rose at Leeming, will become voting venues for the Hambleton District Council poll.

Details of where to vote are included on individual polling cards and lists of stations are also on council websites.