In addition to the forthcoming UK Parliamentary constituency boundary changes, you may also have local government boundary changes coming into force. As a result, if significant changes are proposed for your area, the time and resources required to conduct the review may increase.
If your local authority has their local electoral boundaries reviewed during the statutory review period, you will need to consider how the electoral boundary review will fit with the polling districts/polling places review and whether it would be possible and desirable to align the two reviews. Although it is not required, EROs may find it beneficial to combine them.
You should think about any changes to your local government boundaries that are likely to impact on your polling districts and incorporate those changes into your review planning. For example, if the new UK Parliamentary constituency boundaries were based on your old ward boundaries, you may need to create additional polling districts to support the new boundaries.
An example is set out below, which illustrates how amendments can be made to polling districts to reflect ward boundary changes, and to enable you to produce registers on both the new and the old structures.
Example
Anytown District Council has undergone a local government boundary review which has changed the pattern of wards. The existing wards are split between two Parliamentary constituencies ‘Anytown’ and ‘Newtown’. The parliamentary boundaries for these constituencies have not changed.
The existing ‘Central’ ward, currently made up of two polling districts ‘North Midway’ and ‘South Midway’, is to be abolished and absorbed into the ‘Bunhill’ and ‘Ansell’ wards. The new ward boundary will cut across the ‘North Midway’ polling district with half becoming part of the ‘Bunhill’ ward, and half part of the ‘Ansell’ ward. As such, the ‘North Midway’ polling district needs to be split into two polling districts, such as North Midway A and B, with ‘A’ to become part of the ‘Bunhill’ ward and ‘B’ to become part of the ‘Ansell’ ward.
In this example, the new polling district North Midway B, created to reflect the new ward boundaries, will need to be allocated to the correct Parliamentary constituency.