HUNDREDS of disabled voters found it difficult to have their say in this year's General Election, because of access problems at polling stations.

A report published today by disability charity Scope, reveals that many polling stations visited around the North-East were inaccessible to disabled people during the June election.

Many of those surveyed by the charity had two or more access problems, making it impossible for people to cast their vote.

Obstacles included steps without ramps, obstructed pathways, slippery floors and unreachable voting booths.

The lack of facilities for disabled people meant many had to arrange to vote by post before election day, or accept help to get into the polling station.

Durham city had one of the worst access problems in the country, with only five per cent of the 37 polling stations visited suitable for disabled voters.

In Hartlepool, two of the 12 centres visited were accessible while two of the 15 in Gateshead were available for disabled voters.

Despite the problems with polling stations, Scope welcomed improvements on previous years.

In Darlington, only eight of the 35 polling stations visited had disabled access, but 60 per cent throughout the borough were available to disabled voters.

Ruth Scott, campaigns officer for Scope, said: "Any improvements made will be of wider benefit to the community, as most polling stations are in public buildings such as schools or libraries, which should be accessible all year round, not just during elections."

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council admitted there were some polling stations that needed to be improved before the next election.

He said: "We know that a lot of our polling stations do not have disabled access, although the number has improved since the last election.

"We are going to look at all our polling stations and we are hoping someone from the Darlington Disabled Access group will join us to help."

He said part of the problem was that not all the polling booths belonged to the council.

He said: "We don't have the power to do anything to places that don't belong to us.

"Where there is no disabled access we ensure people can be helped into the building, but obviously that is not satisfactory."

Improvements Scope wish to see include low-level booths for wheelchair users and large-print ballot papers on display