Polling district review 2023 - 2025

In accordance with Section 17 of the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, every council in England and Wales must undertake and complete a compulsory review of all the polling districts and polling places in its area, within a 16-month period commencing from 1 October every five years. The last compulsory review in Ipswich was completed in 2020 and the recommendations can be found at the bottom of this page.

Ipswich Borough currently has 16 wards, split into 70 polling districts, 52 polling places and 72 polling stations.

The review will look at:

• Electorate (the number of electors) equality within polling districts.
• Suitability of polling places – including quantity, location, size, availability, facilities and accessibility.
• Opportunities to reduce the number of schools and mobile polling stations.
• Electorate equality across the 16 Wards of Ipswich Borough Council.

We will ensure:

• Electors have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances.
• As far as is reasonable and practicable, that polling places are accessible to all electors, including those with disabilities, and when designating a polling place, have regard to the accessibility needs of disabled persons.

The review is not concerned with the established ward, county district and parliamentary constituency boundaries; it is only concerned with polling district boundaries.

The recommendations presented following the review must plan for any predicted changes in electorate over the following four years, including extensive property developments.

Definitions

• Polling district – This is a geographical sub-division of an electoral area (e.g. a ward or constituency.)
• Polling place - This is a designated area or building with space for a polling station to be located within. For example, this could be as widely diverse as a recreation ground or a community centre.
• Polling Station – This is the actual area where the process of voting takes place, within the polling place. For example, this could be a room within a community centre or a mobile unit placed in a recreation ground.

There may be more than one polling station within a polling place.

Notices

• Notice of review

Timetable

• Schedule of review

Existing arrangements

• Schedule of current voting arrangements
• Online Mapping
• Find my polling station

Proposals for new arrangements

• Schedule of proposals

Consultation

The public consultation commenced on 20 November 2023 and ran until 29 December 2023.

Documents for inspection

A schedule of current arrangements, maps and a schedule of proposals for new arrangements are available to view here.

Paper copies of the documents can be viewed at:

Grafton House, 15-17 Russell Road, Ipswich (Mon-Fri 9am to 4.40pm) - by appointment only - please telephone Electoral Services on 01473 432000 to book an appointment.

How to comment

Your views can be submitted online via a short survey.

Alternatively, you can submit your representations to the Council to be received by 5pm on Friday 29 December 2023. Please submit your comments in one of the following ways:

• By email to elections@ipswich.gov.uk; or
• In writing to Electoral Services, Ipswich Borough Council, Grafton House, 15-17 Russell Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 2DE.

Please note: all representations and comments received as part of the review are required to be published and will therefore be available in the public domain.

How we use your personal information

For further information about how we use your data please visit www.ipswich.gov.uk/privacy

Final recommendations

These were considered and approved at the Council meeting on 24 January 2024.

Report to Council - 24 January 2024

Consultation responses

All relevant submissions received before the deadline in connection with this review were considered and can be viewed below:

Log of comments and representations received with responses

Correspondence sent as part of the consultation

If you have any queries or require further information on this or the previous polling district reviews held in 2011, 2013 or 2018, please contact Electoral Services using the details on the left of this page.