Issue - meetings

The Interim Deputy Chief Executive and Strategic Director, Law and Governance, introduced a report on Policy Districts and Polling Places Review 2022.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) had recently carried out an electoral review of Barking and Dagenham and published its final recommendations on 31 August 2021.  The LGBCE recommendations were approved by Parliament via the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (Electoral Changes) Order 2021 on 13 December 2021.

The LGBCE review had resulted in the number of wards in the Borough increasing from 17 to 19 and there had been boundary changes to all but one of the current wards. The number of councillors across the 19 wards would remain at 51, with 13 wards having three councillors and six having two councillors. The new ward arrangements would come into effect from the Local Council Elections on Thursday 5 May 2022.

The Strategic Director advised that as a consequence of the review, the Council was required to carry out its own review of the polling districts within each ward and the location of polling places / stations to serve each polling district. That exercise was commenced following the publication of the LGBCE final recommendations. The proposals were subject to a four-week consultation with relevant interested persons / organisations and the local community, of which commenced on 20 January 2022.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)  Approve, subject to (ii) below, the review of polling districts and associated polling places as detailed in Appendix A to the report; and

(ii)   Delegate authority to the Strategic Director, Law & Governance, in her capacity as Returning Officer (RO) and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), to approve any amendments to the polling districts and/or polling places that (a) may be deemed appropriate following the public consultation, and (b) are deemed necessary for the efficient delivery of an election.