Croydon Council will be operating an election count mini-coach service between the town hall and Trinity School, Shirley, where counting will be taking place on both Thursday, May 6 and Friday, May 7.

The step is to encourage all those involved with running the election to get to the venue without using a car.

On-site parking is limited especially so on the Friday when it will be a normal school day for Trinity and nearby on-street parking is also restricted.

However, the school is well-served by public transport with the 119, 194, 198 and 466 all taking just 10 minutes for journeys to and from East Croydon.

As a further encouragement towards green travel, council electoral staff are hiring three 26-seater mini-coaches to operate a shuttle service on both days.

On Thursday coaches will depart the Town Hall from 8.30pm until 11pm, with coaches departing and returning every 15 minutes.

Then from 2am until 6.30am a coach will be making return journeys to the Town Hall.

On Friday coaches will depart from 9am until 10.45am with coaches departing every 15 minutes.

Then until 2pm until 5pm a coach will be available departing and returning as and when required to the town hall.

Passengers will be able to travel for free, but will have to demonstrate a bona fide reason for attending the count, either as a member of the counting team, an election candidate, or a party agent.