Decision details

Every local authority is required to respond to petitions and inform local people what action is going to be taken to address their concerns. This report will provide an update on the new duty following withdrawal of the statutory guidance issued under the relevant statutory provisions and proposes a new petitions scheme for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution. The Cabinet is invited to consider the proposed scheme and forward comments for inclusion in the report to be considered by full Council at its meeting on 25 November 2010.

Discussion:

This report asked the Council to consider and adopt a new petitions scheme for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution following the withdrawal of statutory guidance. The report provided an update on the new duty for petitions and
e-petitions and set out the recommendations from Cabinet.

The Leader, supported by Councillor Jarrett, moved the recommendations set out in the report at paragraph 7.1, with the addition that a valid postal address would also be required from people signing e-petitions, as well as a postcode.
 

Decision:

The Council agreed:

(a)       to adopt the petitions scheme attached at Appendix B for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution (as Appendix A to the Council rules in Chapter 4) with the addition of a valid postal address being required from people signing e-petitions;

(b)       that authority is delegated to the Monitoring Officer to determine when it would not be appropriate for a petition to be handled under the petitions scheme because it is deemed to be vexatious, abusive, otherwise inappropriate or excluded from the scheme, taking into account relevant law and statutory guidance;

(c)        that authority is delegated to the Assistant Director Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to make minor amendments to the provisions in the scheme relating to e-petitioning if required once the system is in place to ensure the scheme accurately reflects the technical aspects of the IT arrangements;

(d)       to approve the changes required to the Constitution as a consequence of introduction of a petitions scheme as set out in Appendix C.