Voting now closed.

After a several sunny days on the road campaigning in the Mobile Ballot Box voting has now closed in the ballot of the community buyout for Castle Toward Estate. Thank you to everyone who turned out during the last couple of days and showed their support for the community group by casting their votes. Hundreds have visited the Mobile Ballot Box in its various locations over the past week and even the local community group were surprised by the response to the ballot box on wheels. Alan Stewart, Chairman of the local group, said “people have been commenting on how this idea has lifted the community spirit, its become a meeting point for people to come along and not just vote but also chat with each other, something that was maybe missing in the community in the months before”

The actual ballot box will now be couriered, on Monday, back to the Electoral Reform Service in London who will break open its tamper proof seals, count the votes cast and then notify the community group of the result, hopefully by late Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a tense few days ahead” said Alan, “although we know the turnout has been very good, we still don’t know how many people voted and whether they said yes or no to our proposed community buyout of Castle Toward”

Once the community group have been notified of the the result they will post the public ballot details on their website www.savecastletoward.com. The result will also be posted on the Twitter page @CastleToward, the Facebook page Save Castle Toward, the local newspapers website www.dunoon-observer.com and on local radio DCR 97.4FM.