Thousands of face masks and bottles of sanitiser are being distributed to polling stations in Staffordshire to ensure safe voting on 6th May.

Staffordshire County Council has been working with the eight district and borough councils to plan for Covid-compliant voting in buildings across the county.

Voters will be going to the polls for elections, including for: all 62 Staffordshire county councillors; the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire; and a third of councillors at both Cannock Chase District Council and Tamworth Borough Council.

John Henderson, Chief Executive of Staffordshire County Council, said: "There has been a great deal of work behind the scenes to prepare so people can cast their vote safely on 6th May.

"We expect people will be wearing their own masks and we are encouraging them to bring their own pen too, but we are distributing more than 120,000 face masks to polling stations for use if necessary, as well as 5,000 bottles of sanitiser and thousands of small pencils."

As well as hand sanitiser, polling stations will also use a range of measures including screens, distance markings and protective barriers as needed, while staff will be wearing PPE and there will be regular cleaning.

John Henderson added: "Each polling station has been reviewed and some, but not all, of those at schools have moved to other locations nearby.

"Where a school is being used as a polling station, officials are going through all the detail with the school to ensure it's all done in a Covid-compliant way.

"Polling station addresses are printed on the voting card that most people should have received by now, so if there is a change of location from the usual venue it will be shown on the card.

"I would encourage everyone who is able to cast their vote to have their say in how millions of pounds are spent on providing services locally and I think that for those people who are choosing to vote in person the experience will feel the same as going to the shop or something similar."