Under the Electoral Administration Act 2006 every four years an authority must complete a review of its polling districts and polling places. The last scheduled review was held from Monday 15 August to Monday 12 September 2011.
What does the review involve?
The review was carried out to make sure that all electors have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances.
On commencing the review a notice was published with details of the review, including when and where comments or representations should be made.
Any elector in the constituency may make a representation in relation to the size and boundaries of polling districts and the location and suitability of polling places.
The council also welcomed comments and representations from any Councillors in the area, past or potential candidates, local political parties and indeed any person or body with expertise in access for persons with any type of disability.
On completion of the review the council will publish all correspondence sent and received, details of the results of the review including any issues raised and indeed any changes which have been approved, giving the reasons for its decisions.
What is a Polling District?
A polling district is a geographical sub-division of an electoral area.
For voting purposes, each Parliamentary constituency and every local government ward is divided into one or more polling districts. Wherever possible the polling districts for local government elections mirror that agreed for parliamentary elections.
Leicester City has 22 Wards divided up into 103 Polling Districts, which vary in size and electorate.
The current list of the existing Wards, Polling Districts and Polling Places is also available to view on this page.
What is a polling place?
A polling place is a geographical area in which a polling station is located.
However, there is no legal definition of what a polling place is.
It could be as large as the polling district or as small as a particular building. Currently in Leicester City all polling places are Polling Districts.
What is a Polling Station?
A polling station is where the voting actually takes place and must be located within the polling place designated for the particular polling district.
You can have more than one polling station in a polling place as was the case for some areas for the recent elections and referendum held on 5 May 2011.
When deciding which buildings to use as polling stations, the Council tries to make sure that they are located as conveniently as possible for the majority of electors and that they are accessible to everyone, particularly anyone with a disability.
Thought must be given, for example, to the distance people have to travel to vote and any barriers to them getting there, such as major roads or rivers.
Guidelines
The following considerations have been taken into account when allocating polling districts and polling places.
Comments made during the consultation should keep these in mind. The first two are required by electoral law and the others are best practice:
The council must seek to ensure that all electors have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances.
The Council must seek to ensure that so far as is reasonable and practicable every polling place is accessible to electors who are disabled.
Ideally, the polling place should be in its own polling district.
No polling place should be shared by two wards.
Where possible, “natural” boundaries should be used, e.g. railways, major roads, etc.
All properties in a minor road or estate should, ideally, be in the same polling district.
Polling places should be “logical”; that is, electors should not have to pass another polling place to get to their own.
If you need more information on this process, please contact the
Electoral Services Team.
Electoral Services Team
Leicester City Council
Mezzanine Floor
A Block
New Walk Centre
Welford Place
Leicester
LE1 6ZG
