The General Purposes Committee of Wandsworth Council is scheduled to meet on 1 December 2025. On the agenda is a discussion of a change to a polling place in Southfields ward, and an update on the implementation of recommendations made after a review of the UK Parliamentary General Election on 4 July 2024.

Polling Place Change in Southfields Ward

The (Acting) Returning Officer is scheduled to present a report to the committee regarding a proposed change of polling place in Southfields ward. The report recommends that the committee approve the movement of the polling place in Polling District SFC from Southfields Academy to St Barnabas Church.

According to the report pack, Southfields Academy is no longer available. Alternative locations were assessed, but deemed unsuitable. These included:

• The Army complex on Merton Road, which declined due to security concerns.
• Aspire Leisure Centre, which declined due to security and safeguarding concerns related to children using the entrance.

St Barnabas Church is already used as a polling place for the SFA polling district. The report states that the church hall is of sufficient size to accommodate both districts, with a partition separating them.

The report acknowledges that St Barnabas Church is on the opposite side of Merton Road from Southfields Academy, but notes the presence of a pedestrian crossing. The report claims that:

The change of venue does not significantly increase the journey time for most electors in the ward and for many it is a shorter journey albeit with the need to cross a busy road.

Election Update

The General Purposes Committee is also scheduled to note an update on the implementation of recommendations made following the review into the UK Parliamentary General Election on 4 July 2024. The review was conducted by Andrew Maughan.

The recommendations and planned actions are:

1. Resourcing of elections: The council is scheduled to consider how it resources elections in the future, taking into account pressures on election teams. Benchmarking has been completed with 10 other London boroughs. The report states that the set up for local government elections is quite different to a UK Parliamentary General Election (UKPGE).
2. Involvement of finance officers: The council is scheduled to draw on its officers in finance to lead on the creation of spreadsheets and their operation at counts, and consider their involvement in the provision of elections more widely. The design of the count at local government elections is different to the UKPGE. The Director of Finance has agreed that her team will review the template count spreadsheets from 2022.
3. Spreadsheet design: The spreadsheet design is scheduled to include double checks of figures vertically and horizontally. The teams responsible for data entry into the results spreadsheets are scheduled to be trained in advance and monitored throughout the process.
4. Declaration of results: The declaration of the result is scheduled to include the overall number of votes cast and counted.
5. Rejected votes: The public oral Declaration of Result has always included figures on rejected votes except on one occasion, and is scheduled to revert to doing so again at all future elections.
6. Sharing figures with candidates and agents: A Statement as to Verification of Ballot Boxes is and always has been available upon request at the end of the verification process, and is now scheduled to be produced as a matter of course. The current Returning Officer has also agreed that he is happy to give verified totals of ballot boxes on an individual basis once they are verified.
7. Involvement of internal audit: A discussion with Internal Audit on how they can best assist with this work is underway.
8. Communications: Wider stakeholders need to be considered in matters on communications around elections.

Other Items

The committee is also scheduled to confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2025 as a correct record, and to receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests and other relevant interests in any of the matters to be considered at the meeting.