Polling Stations

The City Council has a duty under the Representation of the People Act 1983 to divide its area into polling districts and to designate a polling place for each district. It also has to keep these arrangements under review. A polling district is a geographical sub-division of a constituency or ward and a polling place is the area or building where a polling station is located. A polling station is the actual area where voting takes place.

 

The Council must seek to ensure that electors have reasonable facilities for voting and that, so far as is reasonable and practicable, polling places are accessible to all electors and when considering the designation of a polling place must have regard to the accessibility needs of disabled persons.

 

The City Council conducts an annual review of polling arrangements in those wards having local elections in the following May but the Electoral Administration Act 2006 introduced a number of changes to the way reviews must be carried out. The main change is that the Council must conduct a full review of all parliamentary polling districts and places by the end of 2007 and then every four years. This does not prevent changes being made at any other time. The arrangements made for parliamentary elections are also used at other elections.

In general terms, the Council announces that a review is to take place. The formal notice of the review can be viewed as a PDF Document. The Council invites comments from interested parties and consults the Returning Officer of all constituencies in its area, who make representations on existing and proposed arrangements. The Council must publish the Returning Officers' proposals. These are considered together with all other representations before final decisions are made.

 

The consultation must actively seek comments from people who have particular expertise in relation to access to premises or facilities for persons who have different forms of disability. Any elector may make representations and, although not required by law, the consultation will include local political parties and elected representatives.

The current polling arrangements in Carlisle constituency and that part of Penrith and the Border constituency that falls within the City Council's area can also be downloaded. This lists the polling place for each polling district. If you are not sure which polling district you live in, you can view a street index. The polling district code letters are shown in brackets after the name of the street or locality. (Polling districts in Penrith and the Border are all prefixed with the letter 'P'; the rest are in Carlisle constituency.)

 

We have also provided a list of the streets within each polling district in the Carlisle constituency and for Penrith and the Border.

 

Comments on the existing polling districts and places and any proposals for changes should be made in writing to the Returning Officer as follows by 26^th October, 2007:

Write to Returning Officer

Electoral Services

Carlisle City Council

Civic Centre

Carlisle CA3 8GQ

 

E-mail elections@carlisle.gov.uk

 

Further information about the review can be obtained from Electoral Services at the Civic Centre, telephone 01228 817555