The review requires the council to:

• Seek to ensure that all the electors in the area have reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances
• Seek to ensure that so far as is reasonable and practicable, every polling place is accessible to electors who are disabled and when considering the designation of a polling place, must have regard to the accessibility needs of disabled persons

Please note that the following are not considered as part of the review:

• The changing of any district ward boundaries (which can only be done by statute following an electoral review carried out by the Local Government Boundary Commission). This review is concerned only with the administrative subdivision of the wards and new electoral divisions into polling districts which are then assigned polling places;

or,

• The changing of polling districts in areas that are also aligned with parish boundaries and therefore cannot be amended during this review (these can only be amended during a Community Governance Review).

The review was completed in November 2016. The Returning Officer prepared proposals for the future polling arrangements which were published on Friday 23 September 2016.

A consultation period ran from 23 September 2016 until Friday 14 October 2016.

During the review representations and feedback on any aspect of the allocated polling areas or polling stations were sought from:

• Returning officers
• Members of Parliament
• District Councillors
• County Councillors
• Parish Councils via Parish Clerks
• Local Constituency Political Parties
• Disability and Access groups
• Persons / organisations with expertise in relation to access to premises or facilities for disabled persons

In addition, any elector in the South Kesteven area could make a representation, which had to include proposals for specified alternative polling places.

The revised polling district arrangements will take effect from 1 February 2017. 

The polling arrangements will then be kept under review. The next full review of polling districts and polling places will take between October 2018 and January 2020.

For further information, please contact the electoral services team on 01476 40 60 80 or by email elections@southkesteven.gov.uk