What happens after I submit a petition?
We will send an acknowledgement of a petition within 10 working days of receipt. It will explain what we plan to do and if and when you can expect to hear from us again.
There are several different ways that your petition will be dealt with after this acknowledgement:
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If we can do what your petition asks for, we will confirm that we will do it and the petition will be closed.
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If we need to investigate, we will tell you how we plan to take to do this, how you may be involved and when you can expect the final response.
- If your petition receives less than 10 valid signatures, we will not deal with this through our formal petitions process, but we will instead acknowledge the requestor and redirect them to the appropriate service.
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If the petition has enough signatures to trigger a council debate (5,000 signatures), or allow a senior officer to give evidence (2,500 signatures). We will confirm this with you and tell you when and where the meeting will take place and how you may be involved.
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If the petition is about a planning application, about a matter where there is already an existing right of appeal, or is a statutory petition, other procedures will apply.
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If your petition does not follow the guidelines, the council may decide not to do anything further with it. In this case, we will write to you to explain the reasons.
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If your petition was sent in the period before an election or referendum, we may need to deal with it differently. We will contact you with further information if this is the case.
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If you are calling for a referendum on our governance arrangements your petition must contain the signatures of at least 5% of the electorate, which is currently 33,351 signatures.
If your petition has more than 5,000 signatures it will be debated by the full council. This is a meeting that all County Councillors can attend and we will let you know about how you may be involved.
View the dates and times of these meetings online.
A response to the petition, or further steps to be taken, may be decided at this meeting. If the council executive has to make the final decision on the response to the petition, the council may make recommendations to help this decision.
If you would like to present your petition to the full council, or would like someone else to present it on your behalf, please contact Mike Bradbury on 01785 276133 at least 10 working days before the meeting and he will talk you through the process.
If your petition contains at least 2,500 signatures, the relevant senior officer will give evidence at a public meeting. The senior staff that can be called to give evidence are:
- Pat Flaherty, Chief Executive
- Bernie Brown, Director for Children and Families
- Darryl Eyers, Director for Economy, Infrastructure and Skills
- Richard Harling, Director for Health and Care
- John Tradewell, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Corporate Services
Please note: The overview and scrutiny committee may decide that it would be more appropriate for another officer to give evidence instead of any officer named in the petition. The committee may also decide to call the relevant councillor to attend the meeting.
Committee members will ask the questions at this meeting, but we will let you know the specific arrangements for the meeting and how you may be involved. They will make a report on its findings which may include recommendations for action.
The petition organiser will be sent a copy of the overview and scrutiny committee's report.
If your petition has less than 10 valid signatures or is about something which we have no direct control over, such as a local railway or hospital, we will consider making representations on behalf of the community to the relevant body.
If your petition is about something that a different council is responsible for, we will consider the best way of responding. This might consist of forwarding the petition to the other council, but could involve other steps.
We will always notify you of the action we have taken.
If you feel that we have not dealt with your petition properly, the petition organiser can request a review of the steps that we have taken in response. It is helpful to everyone if the petition organiser gives a short explanation of the reasons why the steps the council has taken are not considered to be adequate.
The committee will usually consider your request at its next meeting, although on some occasions this may not be possible and consideration will take place at the following meeting. Should the committee determine that we have not dealt with your petition adequately, it may use any of its powers to deal with the matter. These powers include making recommendations to the council executive and arranging for the matter to be considered at a meeting of the full council.
Once the appeal has been considered the petition organiser will be informed of the results within 5 working days.