Interim review of polling districts and polling places 2025

Interim Review of polling districts and polling places 2025

In my capacity as the Returning Officer for the South Lanarkshire Council local authority area, I am responding to the consultation on the council's 2025 interim review of polling districts and polling places.

Firstly, I would make a few preliminary observations:

As at February 2025, the electorate for the South Lanarkshire local authority area, including those aged 16 and 17 years, was 261,960. A revised register of electors will be published in December 2025.

In conducting this review, the council must seek to ensure that: 

• all electors in the constituency have reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances; and 
• so far as is reasonably practicable, all polling places should be accessible to all voters including those who are disabled and when considering the designation of a polling place, the council must have regard to the needs of persons with disabilities

The current polling scheme has 146 polling places, of which 78 are council schools. Council officers are generally content around the accessibility and suitability of polling places within council schools, with further accessibility audits having been conducted after the last statutory review of polling places was carried out in 2024. Moving forward, there will be a requirement for a more detailed review of all polling places to be conducted to verify their accessibility and suitability. However, as matters stand, no issues are expected that cannot be suitably dealt with and this review will be overseen on a business-as-usual basis by the council's Elections Office. In the usual way, additional aids are supplied to each polling station on polling day by the election office to provide assistance to those that might require it in order to vote.

It is recognised that the use of schools can impact upon the delivery of education services by the council. I would, however, note that the use of schools for polling places in South Lanarkshire is well-established, and to mitigate impact on elder pupils and the wider school communities the council's secondary schools are not used. It must also be recognised that schools have benefits over other potential polling places, being owned by the council, well located, well maintained and more generally suitable in terms of accessibility. I also note that the date for the next scheduled electoral event taking place in 2026, being the Scottish Parliamentary election, is to be an in-service day for all the council's schools, this having been approved by the council's Education Resources Committee on 29 October 2024.

Taking account of the above, I would make the following proposals: 

Polling districts and polling places

As regards polling districts, the changes proposed are as set out below. There were other polling districts that were merged following the outcome of the statutory review in 2024 and at this time I do not intend to propose the merger or amendment of any further polling districts.

The following polling districts and polling places in Ward 3 – Clydesdale East – have been reconsidered as part of this review and the following is proposed: 

• Polling districts SL024, SL025 and SL029 were previously merged as all are now within the same constituency for UK Parliamentary, Scottish Parliamentary and South Lanarkshire Council elections. SL024 was retained, but SL025 and SL029 were removed. 

Following representations from local residents, and a further review by the council’s Elections Office, it is proposed that the polling places for voters in the merged SL024 polling district will be Symington Hall, but with Coulter Hall also being used. 

• Polling districts SL030, SL032 and SL033 previously merged as all are now within the same constituency for UK Parliamentary, Scottish Parliamentary and South Lanarkshire Council elections. SL030 was retained but SL032 and SL033 were removed. 

Following representations from local residents, and a further review by the council’s Elections Office, it is proposed that the polling places for voters in the merged SL030 polling district will be Quothquan Hall, but with Thankerton Hall and Carmichael Hall also being used. 

• Polling districts SL031 and SL035 previously merged as all are now within the same constituency for UK Parliamentary, Scottish Parliamentary and South Lanarkshire Council elections. SL031 was retained but SL035 was removed. 

Following representations from local residents, and a further review by the council’s Elections Office, it is proposed that the polling places for voters in the merged SL031 polling district will be Carstairs Junction Hall, but with Pettinain Hall also being used. 

In relation to polling district SL163, as a result of Trinity Parish Church Hall now being permanently closed, voters in this district will use the polling place aligned to neighbouring district SL162, which is Machanhill Primary School. This was successfully adopted at the June 2025 Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election. 

The Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries has recently concluded, with the new constituencies, regions and boundaries due to come into effect in May 2026. In relation to the current Rutherglen constituency within South Lanarkshire, this will be renamed to Rutherglen and Cambuslang, to differentiate between the UK Parliamentary boundary and the Scottish Parliamentary boundary. 

The change will also see polling district SL120, that is currently contained within the Uddingston and Bellshill constituency, moved so that it is contained within the Rutherglen and Cambuslang constituency. 

For the avoidance of doubt, for South Lanarkshire, this means there are the following constituencies which form part of the following regions: 

The full list of polling districts, polling places and their respective UK and Scottish constituencies, together with ward boundaries, will be published in due course.

In the usual way, the Elections Office would always look to conduct an interim review of the polling scheme in advance of an electoral event, where practicable.

I hope this response assists and is helpful for consideration alongside other consultation responses. If you require any further information, please let me know.

Yours sincerely

Dated: 28 November 2025