The council is asking whether Kendal Leisure Centre, the Common Room and the Beck Centre still work as polling places. Comments close on 5 October.
Where people in Kendal vote is being redrawn, and the council is asking residents what they think before 5 October.
Westmorland and Furness Council is reviewing every polling district and polling place in its area. Kendal has more proposed change in it than anywhere else in the schedule. One polling district is being split in two, another two are being merged, and the council says in writing that it wants to hear whether three specific Kendal venues are still the right places to vote.
The consultation opened on 7 September and closes on Monday 5 October 2026. Final proposals go to a meeting of the full council on Thursday 26 November. The review is required under section 18C of the Representation of the People Act 1983.
The detail is in the council’s schedule of polling districts and polling places, a 42 page document published with the consultation. The Kendal comments below are the Acting Returning Officer’s own words, not a summary by anyone else.
Why it is happening now
Kendal’s parish wards have been redrawn twice over. The council says the changes come from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s review, then further amendments from a community governance review the council ran itself.
The polling districts have to follow. The schedule names the new parish wards they now have to match: Heron Hill, Castle, Oxenholme and Parks, Kendal South, Sandylands, Mintsfeet and Strickland.
The three venues the council is asking about
This is the part worth answering if you live in these areas. In each case the council has written that it wants electors’ views.
- Kendal Leisure Centre, Burton Road. A new polling district, SBM1, would be created around The Lound, Archers Meadow, properties on the south side of Parkside Road and some streets on the Heron Hill estate. Its polling place would be the Lonsdale Suite at the leisure centre. The council says it is “keen to hear from electors in this area as to whether Kendal Leisure Centre is a suitable polling place”.
- The Beck Community Centre, Esthwaite Avenue. A second new district, SBM2, would cover properties on Heron Hill and Valley Drive and vote at the Beck Centre. Again the council asks whether the venue is suitable.
- The Common Room, Castle Walk. District SBQ would keep the Common Room, but the council asks whether electors think it “is still suitable, or whether moving to the Castle Street Centre, Kendal, would be more appropriate”.
The streets that would change polling station
Two groups of Kendal homes are told plainly that their polling station changes.
- Low Mead, High Mead and Sparrowmire Lane move from the Methodist Church Room on Union Street to Hallgarth Community Centre. The council says it thinks this is more convenient and wants to hear from electors on those streets.
- Even numbered properties on Peat Lane, Grasmere Crescent, Coniston Drive and Ullswater Road up to number 37 move from district SBJ into SBK, and with it to Sandylands Methodist Church at Sandgate Hall.
A third group is moved on paper but not in practice. Properties south of the railway line that were in SBP, including Beezon Road, Castle Street and the streets around it, Castle Crescent, Kirkbie Green and as far as Parr Street and Sunnyside, move into SBJ. Their polling place was the Castle Street Centre already, so nothing changes on polling day.
Homes east of the River Kent also move district. Lound Road, Lound Street, Garden Road, Lound Square, Old Lound and Riverside Place leave SBT1 for the proposed SBM1.
One line in the document contradicts itself. Under district SBJ the schedule says “the polling place for SBK will remain the Castle Street Centre”. Under SBK, two paragraphs later, it says those electors “will go to the designated polling place at Sandylands Methodist Church, Sandgate Hall”, and the schedule’s own table gives Sandylands Methodist Church as the SBK polling place. We have asked nobody to resolve this and are flagging it rather than picking one: if you live on those streets, it is worth being the elector who asks.
Two districts are being merged
Districts SBT1 and SBT2 have existed separately since an earlier boundary review, and both already vote at the Lonsdale Suite in Kendal Leisure Centre. The council’s comment is blunt: “Now, there is no reason for them to be split.”
They would become a single district, SBT, with the same boundary as the new Kendal South parish ward, voting at the Lonsdale Suite.
What is staying the same
Several Kendal districts are proposed unchanged: SBN, SBO, SBL, SBR, SBU and SCQ at Natland. Two of them come with an open question attached.
- Kirkland Parish Hall sits slightly outside district SBO. The council says it is not aware of a suitable alternative inside the district, and welcomes suggestions.
- The Castle Street Centre is outside district SBP but remains its polling place, for the same reason. Suggestions are welcome there too.
The five Kendal wards, by electorate
| Council ward | Electorate | Polling places |
|---|---|---|
| Kendal Strickland and Fell | 5,190 | Stricklandgate House, Methodist Church Room, Hallgarth Community Centre |
| Kendal Highgate | 5,000 | Kirkland Parish Hall, Kendal Leisure Centre |
| Kendal Nether | 4,981 | Castle Street Centre, Sandylands Methodist Church |
| Kendal Castle | 4,743 | Beck Community Centre, The Common Room |
| Kendal South | 4,535 | LDNPA at Murley Moss, Kendal Leisure Centre, Stonecross Manor Hotel, Natland Village Hall |
Those five wards hold 24,449 electors between them. Kendal South also takes in Natland, about two miles south of the town, which votes at Natland Village Hall.
What it means for you
If you vote in Kendal, this decides which building you walk to at the next election, and the council is explicitly asking rather than telling.
How to comment before 5 October:
- online, through the council’s polling district review survey
- by email to reviews@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
- by post to Electoral Services, Voreda House, Portland Place, Penrith, CA11 7BF
Two practical points from the notice. The council asks that anyone objecting to a venue names an alternative building where possible, which carries more weight than an objection on its own. And it particularly wants to hear from people with expertise in access for disabled voters, which is the question a leisure centre or a church hall is most likely to get wrong.
All comments are published anonymously on the council’s website. The review documents can also be inspected in person at Kendal Town Hall, as well as at Barrow Town Hall and Voreda House in Penrith.
Westmorland and Furness is split across four parliamentary constituencies. Kendal sits in Westmorland and Lonsdale, alongside Barrow and Furness, Morecambe and Lunesdale, and Penrith and Solway elsewhere in the area.
Sources: the council’s notice of review of polling districts and polling places 2026, its schedule of polling districts and polling places by ward, and its announcement of 9 September 2026.
More Kendal local information: council tax bands, planning news, roadworks and travel and parking in Kendal.
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