Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from the following members:

Councillor Green, substituted by Councillor Currie;

Councillor W. Scobie, substituted by Councillor Matterface.

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest advice attached to this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete the Declaration of Interest Form

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

To agree the minutes of the meeting of the Boundary and Electoral Arrangements Working Party of the 14 November 2024.

Councillor Kup proposed, Councillor Packman seconded and Members agreed the minutes to be a correct record of the working party meeting held on 14 November 2024.

Nick Hughes, Committee Services Manager and Deputy Monitoring Officer introduced the report and made the following comments:

·  The review had to be conducted in accordance with Section 17 of the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013;

·  The outcome of this review would have been used theoretically for the May 2025 KCC elections, but now KCC would like to take part in the devolution priority pathway programme. As a result they would be asking government to cancel the 2025 KCC elections;

·  The review consultation process included emailing participants and advertising the review on the TDC website;

·  Officers used online module for the public consultation and had received twenty two responses and this was similar to the review conducted five years ago;

·  A number of alternatives had been suggested by respondents during the consultation;

·  The council had tried to get in touch with the suggested venues.

Members asked questions and made comments as follows:

·  One of the venues, the Church building, was up for sale. However, there were also some discussions for a takeover by the Baptist Union. A decision would be out by the end of February 2025;

·  Could elections not be held on a weekend to increase the number of venue options for polling stations?

·  It appeared a recent survey showed that the public preferred that elections be held during the week rather than on weekends.

Nick Hughes and Lyn Davey, Electoral Services Manager responded to member comments and questions as follows:

·  Officers would keep an eye on the availability of the Church building;

·  Five ago, the council looked at the option of using a mobile station. Officers considered using an inflatable igloo. However the costs were prohibitive as it would cost £4k;

·  Insurance costs were also prohibitive and this was against a total polling stations budget of £16k;

·  It would therefore be difficult to justify using mobile stations to the Electoral Commission’s claims unit as they were expensive;

·  That is why it would be a better option to keep the current arrangements in place;

·  In some cases some of the electors live in an area that is some distance from the polling station and in a different ward. This would remain the case until after the electoral boundaries have been changed;

·  One of the potential polling stations in Newington would not be available for the May 2025 elections, as the venue was being refurbished. However it was worth noting that the KCC elections might be cancelled.

Councillor Packman proposed, Councillor Kup seconded and Members agreed that the proposals for polling districts, places and stations for future elections, as attached at Annex 1 to the working party report, be recommended to Full Council.