Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places
We are conducted a review of polling districts and polling
places across the district and asked for feedback on the
following documents:
The consultation was launched on 1 July
2011 in relation to the Polling District Review.
The closing date for comments was 15
October 2011.
This stage of the consultation relates purely
to the Polling District areas and not to the actual Polling
Stations which are the subject of a separate review.
As part of the consultation some suggestions
to change the Polling District boundaries have been received.
The suggestions are set out below:
Representation received from the Dover
and Deal Labour Party
"There is a general concern that any barrier
to voting needs to be addressed and our election workers have had a
huge contact with electors over several years. A constant theme is
that distance to the polling station is a major factor in not
voting and this is particularly more so in urban and low income
areas.
Despite availability of postal votes, those
areas that have low voter turnouts often have low take-up of postal
votes as well. Although distance to polling stations is generally
greater in rural areas, availability of transport generally
ameliorates this factor and is less of a barrier in those
areas.
Resultantly, our view is that action should be
taken to reduce distances to polling stations in more urban, low
income areas.
- Particularly, we feel that Buckland Estate
(BC1) should be repartitioned into two polling districts again with
the nursery (on the site of former Melbourne School) being
reinstated as a polling station. We have encountered far more
reluctance to vote in the upper Melbourne Avenue and around
Rokesley Road since the estate had a single polling station at the
Community Centre.
- Similarly, we have identified the same issues
in the top part of North Deal (surrounding Canute Road, etc) since
that area was merged into a larger polling district with the loss
of its local facility. Previously, the polling station was provided
by a temporary portacabin and we would be the first to acknowledge
that this is far from ideal. However, the lack of alternative
premises is difficult and, in our view, the inadequacies of a
temporary structure far exceeds the current situation where a more
remote polling station has led to a higher disinclination to vote
in this area.
- The third area of concern is the location of
the polling station in the PEX1 polling district. The parish of
Eythorne is basically made up of two distinct villages (Eythorne
and Elvington) and in our view, the polling District should be
divided to reflect this. There is a suitable venue within Elvington
at the Community Centre and, with regards to Eythorne, a more
central venue for that village might be the at the Baptist Church
on Chapel Hill."
The Acting Returning Officers for the Dover Constituency and the
South Thanet Constituency have been consulted and are not
requesting any changes to the existing Polling Districts.
Contact
Tel: 01304 872344
Email: elections@dover.gov.uk
