Issue - meetings

To present to the Regulatory Committee the plan for the statutory polling district and polling place review of the district.

Recommendation

That the Committee are asked to note and comment on the timeline for the statutory review of polling districts and polling places.

The Council is required to carry out a polling district and polling place review every 5 years, and this time around the review falls between 1 October 2023 and 31 January 2025.

The Committee are asked to note the timeline for the statutory review of polling districts and polling places now, as there will be a parliamentary election before the end of January 2025.

The review went live in the beginning of October, and the proposed time table is in place, so an updated register could be in place for 1 February 2024, which will work with all of our local elections on 2 May 2024 and if there is a General Election as well on the same day.

Members will be aware that in December 2013, Council delegated to Regulatory Committee the approval of any changes should they need to take place. There will be a requirement to have another Special Regulatory Committee meeting in January 2024 to provide the outcome of the review and adopt any changes required.

Members raised the following points:

It would be useful to have some statistics on the number of people on the register in each polling district and the number of people who vote on the day in each polling district, as it might help to inform any decisions the council will want to make in terms of locations, and which polling stations are appropriate.

In addition, if the information could also be provided on the number of postal votes, that have been cast, divided compared to where their polling place would be.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee note and comment on the timeline for the statutory review of polling districts and polling places.