Representation of the People Act 1983

31Polling districts and stations at local government elections

(1)For elections of-county councillors (other than councillors of the Greater London Council), the county council may divide an electoral division into polling districts, and may alter any polling district, and for elections of London borough or district councillors the London borough or district council may divide the London borough or district or any ward thereof into polling districts, and may alter any polling district.

(2)In Scotland, for elections of regional or islands councillors the regional or islands council may divide an electoral division into polling districts and may alter any polling district, and for elections of district councillors the district council may divide a ward into polling districts and may alter any polling district; but in the absence of special circumstances those polling districts shall be those which were last designated for the purpose of parliamentary elections under section 18 above.

(3)Any power to constitute polling districts for the purpose of local government elections shall be exercised so that electors from any parliamentary polling district wholly or partly within the electoral area can, in the absence of special circumstances, be allotted to a polling station within the parliamentary polling place for that district unless the parliamentary polling place is outside the electoral area.

(4)Any polling district formed for the purpose of the election of councillors for any ward of a London borough shall, if the ward is wholly included in the electoral area for the election of a councillor of the Greater London Council, be a polling district for the election of a councillor of that Council for that electoral area.

(5)If the polling districts in an electoral area for the election of a councillor of the Greater London Council or in part of such an area are not determined by subsection (4) above—

(a)the council of the London borough which includes that electoral area, or

(b)in the case of an electoral area which includes the City, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, the City of Westminster,

may divide that area or, as the case may be, that part of that area, into polling districts, and may alter any polling district, and subsection (3) above applies to the power conferred by this subsection.