To authorise the Chair to sign the Minutes of the meetings of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee held on 17 April 2023 and 24 May 2023 as correct records of the proceedings.

The Chair was authorised to sign the Minutes of the meetings of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee held on 17 April 2023 and 24 May 2023 as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chair to ask if any Member present is substituting for another Member and, if so, to declare their name as substitute Member and the name of the absent Member.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors L. Hacking and J. Stanger (Vice-Chair).

It was noted that Councillor A.E. Biggs was present as a substitute for Councillor Hacking.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.  Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

Declarations of interest were made by Councillors in the Minutes as indicated below:

Timpe        Agenda Item 5 - Personal Interest as involved with the Manor Barn, Bexhill-on-Sea.

Members received and considered the report of the Electoral Services Manager detailing the Council’s statutory review of its polling districts and polling places.

The review considered the arrangements for polling districts and polling places at UK Parliamentary elections and thus covered the arrangements in place for the parts of Bexhill and Battle and the Hastings and Rye constituencies that fell within Rother.  These arrangements remained in place for other elections.  The review did not cover parliamentary, local government or parish boundaries, or the naming of these electoral areas, which were subject to a separate review process conducted by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The statutory criteria for a review of polling districts and polling places was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.

A total of 23 responses to the consultation were received, which were included in Appendix 2 to the report.  Feedback from polling station staff and polling station inspectors had also been considered.

There were six changes to the existing polling places and polling stations that the Committee was asked to recommend, as detailed in Appendix 2 to the report.

Members had the opportunity to ask questions and the following points were noted:

•      officers were aware of the redevelopment plans for St Barnabas Church, Bexhill and therefore the venue was not recommended to be designated as the permanent polling place for Bexhill Sackville at the current time;

•      Westfield Community Hall could be considered, but officers had not been able to view and access its suitability as yet;

•      Members raised concerns that, although complaints had not been received about the Church Room, St George’s Church, Crowhurst, residents who were not of that religion might feel inhibited due to having to walk through the church.  There was no legislation preventing the use of a church as a polling place, but the Council tried to avoid it if possible and if complaints were received.  As no complaints had been received, the needs of the area had been taken into account and the Church Room was considered to be a suitable venue;

•      Crowhurst Village Hall had been considered as an alternative venue, but the school next door used it at lunchtimes and if used as a polling place, the school might have to close for the day;

•      schools tended not to be used as polling places as the majority would not be able to remain open for the day, due to safeguarding concerns;

•      the Bovis development in north Bexhill was to include a community pavilion and Members suggested that this could be considered as a polling place in the future;

•      mobile venues could be considered but were not preferable, as they tended to cost more to hire, were not usually as accessible and did not have all the required facilities;

•      designating the whole polling district as the polling place gave the flexibility to allow for an alternative venue to be used if one became available, without consultation; and

•      often a venue  ...  view the full minutes text for item LG23/8.