Ward Tool

[jm]

WARD TOOL
wardtool.co.uk



Inspired by the Boundary Assistant website, I have created a tool for drawing a scheme of electoral wards based on polling districts.

This is a work in progress, so please report any bugs/issues in this thread.

The data
When the LGBCE commences a review of a council’s ward boundaries, they publish polling district boundaries and the projected electorate five years from the date of the review on their website.

For now, the tool will only include councils where the LGBCE is currently conducting an electoral review. I also plan to add councils that have published their polling district boundaries and electorate data but are not currently being reviewed, along with 2021 Census populations for all councils in due course.

Updates
I will need to manually update the site once new reviews are commenced and the data is published. I will try to keep on top of this, but if one is missing, please ping or PM me.

I am slowly uploading areas currently under review. More will appear soon.

How it works
Choose the council from the main page list. The total electorate and recommended number of councillors by the LGBCE will be shown above the map.  You can adjust the number of councillors if you wish. The tool then automatically calculates the quota for 1, 2, and 3 member wards.

The tool displays a list of wards on the right side. Pick polling districts on the map to form a ward, and they'll be assigned the same colour. Hovering over a polling district shows its reference and electorate.

Choose the number of councillors from the dropdown list. Deviations from the quota are shown next to each ward. Deviations between -10% to 10% are green, and anything beyond is red.

Census data
Because not all councils have polling district boundaries available, I plan to include census output areas, covering about 200 people each. While these areas might not align with electoral boundaries, they can still be helpful for formulating a warding scheme.

Ward Tool
wardtool.co.uk/

[ricmk]

That's a great tool in the making - thank you.

Can I put in a request for Milton Keynes to come on board? We are in the first stages of a boundary review (discussions on Council Size going on) so this could be very useful for us.

[Khunanup]

Mar 30, 2024 18:20:45 GMT ricmk said:

That's a great tool in the making - thank you.

Can I put in a request for Milton Keynes to come on board? We are in the first stages of a boundary review (discussions on Council Size going on) so this could be very useful for us.

Ditto with Portsmouth.

[doktorb🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️]

Brilliant jm

[J.G.Harston]

Mar 30, 2024 17:25:26 GMT jm said:

WARD TOOL
wardtool.co.uk

Inspired by the Boundary Assistant website, I have created a tool for drawing a scheme of electoral wards based on polling districts.
...
Ward Tool
wardtool.co.uk/

WOO HOO!!!!!

Can I persude you to add North Yorkshire to the data? I don't know why it's not on the LGBC website, but it's been running since last October. I've got the briefing paper and current division electorates here: mdfs.net/Docs/Whitby/Council/Review2024/

I'm tracking down polling district electorates, so far I've only got Scarborough&Whitby's.

[jm]

Electorate data and mapping files haven't been made available by the LGBCE for those councils yet. They will be added once they are available.

[greatkingrat]

It would be good if it was possible to show the existing wards on the map as well.

[European Lefty]

Also could do with a way to change ward names and remove an area from a ward

[jm]

Mar 30, 2024 23:00:59 GMT greatkingrat said:

It would be good if it was possible to show the existing wards on the map as well.

Click on the layers icon on the map and there should be an option to overlay existing wards.

[J.G.Harston]

Mar 30, 2024 23:09:17 GMT European Lefty said:

Also could do with a way to change ward names and remove an area from a ward

In the interim, I use one "leftover" ward to attach PDs to to remove them from the one I'm working on.

[evergreenadam]

Excellent!

[gerrardwinstanley]

This is fantastic! Thank you, jm!

[East Anglian Lefty]

This is great. If you added a feature allowing people to split a polling district and manually input electorate figures (as Boundary Assistant has) then I see no reason it couldn't be used in making actual submissions to the LGBCE.

[jm]

Yes, that is the intention. In the meantime, you could screenshot the map and draw over it to indicate any polling district splitting.

I also plan to add a feature for exporting a list of polling districts which indicates the ward and electorates.

[edgbaston]

Amazing!!! Any chance of Kirklees too.

[jm]

UPDATE

It is now possible to split polling districts - select the 'Split Polling District' button and select the polling district you want to split. Draw your new area and enter the electorate for each part.

I have been working on this for some time but was hesitant to release it at first as it wasn't quite working as expected. It should work now with no issues.

[YL]

Well, I have successfully recreated my Barnsley plan, except of course for the split polling districts (I started before the previous post), and the only issue I encountered was the one I already knew about and which is not your fault, and affects the mapping and electorate figures for the polling districts in Darfield ward. (Most obviously, it leads to the electorate of polling district CI being shown as null.)

[carlton43]

A rather minor failed bit-part actor and would-be 'heavy' from westerns and films noir of the late 50s, the 60s and early 70s ...... Ward Tool or sometimes Toole.

[evergreenadam]

Apr 1, 2024 14:47:14 GMT jm said:

UPDATE

It is now possible to split polling districts - select the 'Split Polling District' button and select the polling district you want to split. Draw your new area and enter the electorate for each part.

I have been working on this for some time but was hesitant to release it at first as it wasn't quite working as expected. It should work now with no issues.

Wow, have been hoping for something like that for ages!

[jm]

Census 2021 data for all councils in the East Midlands is now available.

I have made an FOI request to all councils requesting polling district boundaries and electorate numbers. Those that respond will be added to Ward Tool.