Issue - meetings

To consider the Forward Plan for committee business.

The Committee considered the forward plan for future committee business.

The Chair queried if an update could be provided on Elections. The Monitoring Officer provided the following statement:

“Preparations for the Local Borough Elections began in December 2022. Polling Stations were all booked and letters were sent to staff asking for their availability. Over 223 staff were appointed as a result into various roles such as Presiding Officer, Poll Clerk, Count Assistant, Count Supervisor, and Polling Station Inspector. Therefore, around 145 polling station staff were trained and guidance issued to all count assistants along with a new training video which was very well received by staff.

iPads were used for the first time at every polling station and positive feedback was received as it made the voting process much easier. Additional training was given on the use of tablets and voter ID which was introduced for this election for the first time. Over 77,000 poll cards were posted by Royal Mail to electors across the borough and around 14,000 postal votes were issued for this election. The team worked incredibly hard over this period to ensure that all statutory deadlines were adhered to along with maintaining business as usual. The service is currently 1 FTE short and it’s hoped that recruitment for this post will be carried out shortly.

The elections took place on 4 May 2023 with all polling stations opening on time. There were 24,293 verified votes. After the total electorate of 77,255. Representing at turnout of 31.4%. Voter ID did not cause any significant issues. A total of 19 voters did not vote as they did not have the necessary ID.”

The Committee wished to place on record their thanks and gratitude to the officers for their work on the election.

The Committee queried if there had been an increase in registered postal votes from the last election held, and the Monitoring Officer agreed to provide this information to the Committee after the meeting.

The Committee resolved to note the forward plan for future committee business.