THIS is not a polling station - so read a notice fixed to a house yesterday, and to 97 other premises where people can normally cast their votes.

Redcar and Cleveland Council was concerned some people could have forgotten that, although a villager's home has been used for more than ten years as a polling station, this year all votes had to be posted.

Marian Crane's house in Dunsdale, near Guisborough, has been used as one of the council's 98 polling stations for every local and general election since 1992.

But this year her house, along with other venues usually used for voting, displayed a special council notice stating it was not a polling station.

New work commitments would have made it difficult for Mrs Cane to welcome the village's 117 electorate this time: "I'm pleased it's a postal ballot, I'd have been working on polling day," she explained.

Council election manager John Harbour, said: "We've been indebted to a lot of people, who've helped open and man our polling stations over the years.

"We've worked very hard to try to ensure everyone knows the borough is involved in a postal ballot, but in case there are some people who think there'll still be polling stations, we've decided to put up notices explaining it's a vote in the post this year."

On Wednesday, a council spokesman said they were pleased with the response to the all-postal vote.

He said half of the 105,000 electorate had returned their ballot papers by Wednesday, whereas in the 1999 local election, just 37pc of the electorate turned out to the polling stations to vote.

He said: "We are very pleased, because it shows people have reacted positively to the postal ballot."