Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for

live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone

attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask

members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to

include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting

should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or

recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating

in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral

protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or

reported on. By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area,

you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images

and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or

recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or

reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any

individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred to the notice of filming at meetings and this information was noted.

To receive any apologies for absence and substitutions.

Apologies were received from Dan Paul.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business.

(Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New

items will be dealt with at item 7 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a

matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is

considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest

becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must

withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which

is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a

pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28

days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests

are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of

Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B,

paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution

There were no deputations/petitions/presentations or questions.

All local authorities are required to conduct a review of its polling districts and polling places between 1 October 2023 and 31 January 2025. A polling district is a geographical area created by the sub-division of a UK Parliamentary constituency for the purposes of a UK Parliamentary election. A polling place is the building or area in which polling stations will be selected by the (A)RO). 

It is essential that Haringey Council completes this ‘polling scheme’ review work by January 2024 in preparation for a general election which could be called at any time as well as in time for all the preparations for the May 2024 GLA Mayoral and Assembly Elections. 

Mark Stevens, Assistant Director Direct Services & Project Sponsor, introduced the report as set out in the agenda pack at pages 1 - 111.

By way of introduction, the Committee was advised that the polling district and polling place review had been carried out in a way which built upon the work of the past two recent reviews, set out as follows.

·         In 2021, the ward boundary review undertaken by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) and the subsequent Haringey Council review of its polling districts and places to reflect this.

·         A further review was carried out in October 2022 to build on feedback from the May 2022 elections and population changes.  This was approved by Corporate Committee in February 2023.

The Committee noted that this report sets out the recommendations for each polling district and the associated polling place, including where feedback was received and any changes that were made as a result of the consultation phase.

Four proposals were made for changes to the polling scheme approved in February 2023:

1.    The boundary between CEN-A and CEN-B in the Crouch End ward was moved to the north to make walking distances to the polling stations in those polling districts more even.

2.    The boundary between WHL-A and WHL-B in the White Hart Lane ward was moved to the south to make walking distances to the polling places in those polling districts more even.

3.    The boundary between HRN-A and HRN-D moved to put the whole of Nightingale Lane in HRN-D

4.    The boundary between STG-A and STG-B moved to allocate the electors in Chettle Court to the polling place Hornsey Vale Community Centre

During the discussion of this agenda item, the Committee queried the size of polling district STG-A and whether it would be better for a section of polling district STG-B to be within the boundaries of polling district STG-A.

The Committee was advised that the electorate size was used as a factor, along with the location of buildings that were suitable to be used as polling places to determine the size and boundaries of the polling district.

The proposals had been developed on the Civica Maps system which used Electoral Register data on the electorate size. Proposals were developed in line with the Electoral Commission Guidance for the size of electorate allocated to a polling station. It was confirmed that the STG-A and STG-B electorates met those requirements.

RESOLVED

1. To approve the polling scheme describing the polling districts and the polling places for the London Borough of Haringey as set out in Appendix 1.

2. To grant the (Acting) Returning Officer ((A)RO) and the Deputy (Acting) Returning Officers delegated authority to amend the polling scheme.  This would be where the names of buildings change and for specific elections, where strictly necessary, this could include changing polling places (in the event an election was called and a building was not available, for example).

3. To delegate to the Electoral Registration Officer (“ERO”) the authority to approve  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

There were no new items of urgent business.

15 January 2024

8 February 2024

8 February 2024