Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mathur with Councillor Snape as named substitute. No further apologies for absence were received.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 21^st October 2025 will be published in an Additional Papers pack.

This item was deferred to the next meeting of the Electoral Matters Committee at the request of Members.

The Electoral Services Manager presented the report regarding possible locations for early voting hubs as part of the electoral pilot to be held in May 2026.

Members expressed their support for the pilot and their regret was noted that electronic voting pilots were not being allowed by Government.

Officers had investigated a number of locations that had the potential to be used within the Borough and the Electoral Services Manager updated Members on each location that had been referred to within the report. To support this, a paper was circulated which covered the progress regarding each potential hub (Appendix 1 to the minutes). Each location was discussed, and Members determined that only four were viable to be utilised within the tight timetable.

These were:

•         Abbey Stadium

•         Arrow Valley Visitor Centre

•         Kingfisher Shopping Centre

•         Temporary Building(s) near café in Morton Stanley Park, Windmill Drive

It was noted that three of the four locations were directly connected to the Borough Council which would make progressing arrangements easier. Officers informed Members that there had been positive discussions with the Kingfisher Shopping Centre in securing a unit for a voting hub at that venue, although they would not be able to give an exact location until late January 2026. 

The Committee had previously agreed to set up a working group to review the locations, however no nominations had been received outside of the Committee. Taking this into account along with the viable locations, Members decided that a working group was no longer necessary and that officers could proceed with the pilot arrangements using the four locations stated above.

RESOLVED that

subject to consultation with Group Leaders, officers approach:

·       Abbey Stadium;

·       Arrow Valley Visitor Centre;

·       Kingfisher Shopping Centre; and

·       Morton Stanley Park.

to establish early voting hubs, for the May 2026 electoral pilot, at those locations.