Polling District/Polling Places Review

Under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, all local authorities must undertake a review of all polling districts and polling places every five years. We have now concluded the review of 2018 Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places. The final proposals were approved at the meeting of the Full Council held on 5 December.  The proposed changes take effect for all elections held thereafter.

What does a review cover?

The review requires the Council to:

• Seek to ensure that all the electors in the area have reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances.
• Seek to ensure that so far as is reasonable and practicable, every polling place is accessible to electors who are disabled and when considering the designation of a polling place, must have regard to the accessibility needs of disabled persons.

Please note that the following are not considered as part of the review:

• The changing of any District Ward boundaries (which can only be done by statute following an electoral review carried out by the Local Government Boundary Commission). This review is concerned only with the administrative subdivision of the new Wards into Polling Districts which are then assigned Polling Places;

or,

• The changing of polling districts in areas that are also aligned with Parish boundaries and therefore cannot be amended during this review (these can only be amended during a Community Governance Review).

The review process

The review started on 1 October 2018 and was completed on 5 December 2018. The (Acting) Returning Officer prepared proposals for the future polling arrangements and these were published on 23 October 2018.  During the review representations and feedback on any aspect of the allocated polling areas or polling stations was sought.

In addition, any elector in the East Lindsey area can make a representation, which must include proposals for specified alternative polling places.

What happened next?

The (Acting) Returning Officer's draft proposals were published on 23 October 2018.

Representations on the draft proposals were requested in writing or by email to the Electoral Registration Officer. 

Details of all representations received during the consultation were published as part of the review.

A report outlining the proposals was debated at the meeting of the Full Council held on 5 December 2018.  A Notice of Conclusion of the Review was then published (see above).

For further information, please contact the electoral services team by email elections@e-lindsey.gov.uk