Decision details

To agree revised polling districts to be in place for the County Council Elections in May 2017.

The Committee received an interim review of the polling district boundaries which considered the effect of any changes to the register of electors arising from changes made to the county council division boundaries. The three elements to this review were: polling districts, polling places and polling stations.

In response to members’ questions the Electoral Services Manager said the following:

     i.        Plans were in place to publicise the polling place changes to all the affected electors. A letter would be sent to each individual elector explaining why the changes had taken place. A wider campaign involving social media, online and printed publications would also be issued in the run up to the poll. For all those who would be impacted, their previous polling station would still be operational so if they turned up on polling day they could be redirected.

    ii.        The Electoral Services Manager undertook to email all members’ listing the street information within each new polling district.

The Chief Executive took the opportunity to advise the Committee about the count venue for May. The original intention was to move the election count venue to the University Sports Centre. Although the change in venue is still contemplated for future years, in light of 2017’s combined poll it has been decided not to move the venue this year.

Resolved (unanimously) to

     i.        Adopt the proposed polling districts from 1 March 2017 and the polling place for each be designated as the boundary for that polling district.

    ii.        Keep the polling districts, polling places and polling stations under review.