I have welcomed progress towards finding a replacement polling station for the residents of the Cultural Quarter and the many University of Dundee students who live on the university campus, following the closure of the former Park Place Primary School.
Park Place Primary School relocated last year to the new West End Primary Schools’ Campus as the newly named Victoria Park Primary School, where it is sited alongside St Joseph’s Primary School and Balgay Hill Nursery School. The nursery also moved from Park Place, but it was the former primary school building in Park Place that was used for many years as a polling station.
When the school was relocated, this resulted in the need to look for a new polling station. The council is now looking at using Dundee University Students’ Association’s premises in Balfour Place, just off Old Hawkhill.
I think this is a really good proposal, as it is close to residential housing in West Port, Palais Court, South Tay Street and surrounding streets but it is also in the heart of the university campus and I hope this will encourage a good turnout of students as well as local residents in future elections, including the European Parliament election and the Independence Referendum next year.
A City Council electoral registration officer has advised me:
“We met with DUSA a few weeks ago and will be recommending we use the Union. We will also be recommending changing the Polling District boundary to take in halls at Hawkhill and Seabraes. With the assistance of DUSA we hope to increase registration levels and turnout. Ward members will be sent details of all our proposals in the next week or so and the formal statutory consultation starts on 1 Oct with the final report to the Council in January.”