LOCAL ELECTIONS: VOTERS in Penhill expressed anger at having to use a marquee for a polling station.

Penhill Community Centre, the regular polling station, closed down a month before the election and Swindon Borough Council hired a marquee in its place.

voters yesterday said the centre should have been kept open until election day, and accused the authority of wasting taxpayers' money.

The presiding officer only found out about the marquee when she turned up for work in the morning. She was unhappy because residents had to walk on unsteady wooden boards to reach the marquee.

There was also no ramp on the kerb for wheelchair users, including Dorothy Pithers, 59, of Durnford Road, Penhill, who said: "It is not acceptable. I voted online, but if I didn't have a computer, I wouldn't have been able to vote."

David Heath, 63, of Warminster Avenue, added: "Older people will be too scared to walk on those boards, they're too unsteady."

Frank Brightwell, 75, of Grafton Road, Penhill, said: "They have got two buildings on this site. Why did they have to waste money on a marquee?"

Kenneth Diamond, 73, of Downton Road, Penhill, said: "I want to know who is paying for all this. The money could have gone to facilities on the estate."