The council has a duty to divide its area into polling districts and designate polling places for each district and review them every five years.
The most recent compulsory review took place between 25 October 2024 and 31 January 2025.
Final recommendations
Final recommendations have been approved by the General Purposes and Licencing Committee and came into effect with the publication of the revised electoral register on 1 February 2025.
What was being reviewed?
The aim of the review was to ensure that the polling districts and polling places in Bromley effectively met the needs of voters and covered the following:
- The polling district boundaries within each ward of each constituency.
- The location of the polling place in each polling district.
- The accessibility of each polling place.
- Buildings that might be considered for use as polling stations.
It was not a review of the:
- The ward boundaries.
- The constituency boundaries.
What is the difference between a polling district, place and station?
- A polling district is a geographical sub-division of an electoral area, i.e. a UK Parliamentary constituency, a borough ward or an electoral division.
- A polling place is normally the building or place in the polling district that residents can find and recognise. There is no legal definition of what a polling place is and could be defined as tightly as a particular building or as widely as the entire polling district.
- A polling station is the room or area within the polling place where the process of voting actually takes place.
What makes a suitable polling place?
Location:
- Locations should not be changed without good reason.
- Is it reasonably accessible within the polling district?
- Does it avoid barriers for the voter such as steep hills, railway lines or major roads?
- Are there convenient transport links?
Size:
- Can it accommodate more than one polling station, if required?
- If several polling stations are required, is the polling place big enough to accommodate all voters going in and out of the polling stations, even where there is a high turnout?
- Double polling stations in the same polling place are often used when there are high numbers of voters.
Suitability:
- Is the building available in the event of any unscheduled elections?
- Is there any possibility that the building may be demolished as part of a new development?
- Is the building accessible to those entitled to attend the polling place?
- Are there facilities for polling staff such as toilets, kitchen facilities, heating, lighting and suitable furniture?
The use of schools
We use a small number of schools as polling places. Wherever possible, we will seek to find alternative venues to schools and welcome feedback to alternative venues that may be considered. However, where there are no alternative venues, we are happy to work with the school to minimise any disruption on polling day.
Schools currently used as polling places, have received notification of the dates of the next scheduled elections to be held in the borough, for the next 10 years to allow Head teachers to plan for these dates in advance.
Comments and responses to the initial proposals of the Acting Returning Officer
The Acting Returning Officer made some comments and initial proposals on the polling districts and polling places used at the UK Parliamentary (General) Election on 4 July 2024.
A number of responses were received, which informed the publication of final recommendations, which were approved by the council.