The General Purposes Committee met to discuss the Returning Officer's preliminary proposals for the 2025 polling district and polling place review. The committee approved the proposals for public consultation and noted that the consultation results would be presented for consideration and a final decision at a later meeting.

Polling District and Polling Place Review

The committee reviewed the Polling District and Polling Place Review 2025, which is required to be undertaken every five years, with the last review having taken place in 2022.

The report asked the General Purposes Committee to consider the preliminary review proposals from the Returning Officer and agree to conduct a public consultation on these proposals, commencing from 19 September 2025.

The proposals seek to replace temporary polling stations with fixed polling station alternatives, and the Returning Officer has concerns that the temporary polling stations only meet the lower end of compliance with the Equality Act 2010, potentially disenfranchising individuals with protected characteristics from exercising their democratic right to vote.

The report noted that the Elections Act 2022 has introduced new requirements aimed at improving the security and accessibility of the voting process, raising concerns regarding the suitability of temporary polling stations. These include the need for voters to produce photo identification at polling stations, complete a return declaration form for postal votes, a privacy area to ensure voter confidentiality, and enhanced accessibility requirements such as new devices and dedicated voting booths for blind and partially sighted voters, as well as additional equipment like sufficient seating for voters.

The report stated that the ongoing use of temporary stations continues to present numerous historical issues that are becoming ever more challenging, including security concerns, high risk of vandalism, adverse weather impacts, accessibility and inclusivity challenges, voter experience, environmental concerns, regulatory compliance, provision guarantee, discomfort for the public and staff, delivery and placement problems, the potential for damage to sites and surrounding infrastructure, disruption to local parking, traffic and residents, noise pollution, and disproportionately high costs in comparison to their fixed alternatives.

The report noted that there has been a significant increase in electors opting for postal votes in recent years, from 30,000 pre-2021 to over 70,000 currently, resulting in approximately 30% of the eligible voting electorate not now having to attend in person at polling stations.

The Returning Officer proposed fixed alternatives for 8 polling districts:

• BQ - Midland Terrace
• ES - Junction of Lilac Gardens, Sycamore Avenue
• IR - Whitton Avenue East
• JQ - Junction of Lee Road/Empire Road
• MT - Jeymer Drive
• NQ - Melrose Avenue
• QS - Blenheim Road
• VR - Chilton Avenue

It was not possible to find a suitable fixed alternative for the temporary station located in polling district BP (Wesley Playing Fields). This station will therefore remain temporary but be kept under review and wherever possible the risks mitigated.

The report also recommended a reduction of 1 fixed station in polling district NT.

The report proposed to redraw or merge a number of polling districts, specifically redrawing the polling district boundaries for MT, NQ, NS and NT and merging polling districts JQ and JR, and NS and NT.

For the 2024 UK Parliamentary Elections, Ealing provided 134 polling stations, including 9 temporary stations. The Returning Officer is recommending reducing the total number of polling stations to 132, with only 1 remaining temporary.

The average cost for each fixed building polling place, including venue hire, staffing and equipment costs is £1,700. The average cost per vote cast at a fixed station is £2.99. The average cost for each temporary station including hire and positioning, staffing and equipment costs is £7,800. The average cost per vote cast at a temporary station is £22.90.

If the Returning Officer's preliminary proposals are agreed in full, then in comparison to the local elections held in 2022, the changes would achieve a total saving of over £50,000 at each election from 2026. It is proposed that these savings be used to offset the impact of other elections and electoral registration costs, including the administration of postal voting.

The committee resolved to approve that the arrangements for polling districts and polling places, as recommended by the Returning Officer, go out for public consultation for one month, and noted that the results of the public consultation will be presented to the General Purposes Committee for consideration and decision.

Food and Health and Safety Service Plans 2025-2026

The committee approved the Food Service Plans and Health and Safety Service Plans for 2025-2026. Joe Blanchard, Head of Environmental Health & Trading Standards, introduced the plans, with Rachel Walkowiak, Workplace and Public Safety Team Leader, and Sean Kelly, Food Safety Team Leader, providing overviews of their respective teams' key work activities.

Rachel Walkowiak highlighted that the total number of infectious disease notifications was increasing and was likely higher than before Covid, which she equated to several possible complex factors including an increase in travel since the end of Covid.

Sean Kelly highlighted that additional funding had been secured from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund¹ to focus on noncompliance, particularly in Southall. He also spoke to the predicted threats and challenges of the year ahead, including the impacts of the New Food Standards Delivery Model, service resourcing, new businesses and turnover, cost of living, more non-compliance, and significant incidents such as product recalls and food poisoning outbreaks.

In response to questions from members, Joe Blanchard, Rachel Walkowiak and Sean Kelly clarified and expanded on the following points:

• Regarding street food and cooking and frying in public spaces, there was a street trading consent and pavement license which was required for trading on the highway. Officers were able to make referrals to the street scene enforcement team where necessary if there were concerns.
• Regarding the safety aspects of cooking on the street, officers discussed the potential to create a project to work in conjunction with street scene enforcement ensuring venues had adequate safety checks in place and were protecting the public from risk of burns and injury.
• The Health and Safety teams connected with Business Improvement Districts (BIDS)² when possible, and had a collaborative approach with other London Boroughs, often within a quadrant basis or through online forums, to share good practice.
• The food safety teams often worked closely with the Ealing Council Licensing team to share intelligence on venues opening late and requiring a late night refreshment licence or selling alcohol without a licence, and share intelligence with the Workplace and Public safety team where shisha venues are identified.
• Food service requests had increased dramatically as a result of a food advisory service established within the last two years, which provided advice to newly registered businesses on how to run their businesses safely.
• Regarding the future of attracting and retaining staff and the vacancies within the market, graduate positions are available, an apprenticeship route was being established, and they were also approaching universities directly to retain new graduates.
• In terms of resources the Council had, for the fourth year in a row, a £250K uplift had been made to the budget of the team. This was only temporary and to date the Council had not made a permanent commitment. Joe Blanchard pointed out that the £250K was essential for the food team to continue to discharge the Council's statutory obligations, so the lack of permanent resourcing created uncertainty.