Polling District Review 2024

Overview

In accordance with the Representation of the People Act 1983, the council has a duty to divide the city into polling districts and to designate a polling place for each of these districts. The legislation also requires every local authority to complete a review of its polling districts and polling places by 31 January 2025. Reviews are undertaken at least once every five years. Consequently, we are starting our review from 16 October 2024.

Why your views matter

The review must be carried out to make sure that all electors have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances.

Any elector in the constituency may make a complaint in relation to the size and boundaries of polling districts and the location and suitability of polling places. The council also welcomes comments or complaints 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 submissions received, details of the results of the review, including any issues raised and 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 21 wards divided up into polling districts, which vary in size and electorate.

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.

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.

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.

Where possible, “natural” boundaries should be used, for example railways and major roads. 

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.

Links to maps for each ward and the current list of polling stations and districts, with the acting returning officer’s comments (to be added soon), are below.

You might find this online mapping tool useful when viewing multiple wards and districts.

If you wish to make any comments or have any suggestions regarding the current arrangements, please complete the online consultation.