We welcome e-petitions, which collect signatures online. An e-petition can be created and submitted through our e-petitions page.

E-petitions must follow the same guidelines as paper petitions. The petition organiser will need to provide the council with their name, postal address and email address. The petition organiser will also need to decide how long the petition will be open for signatures. This may range from a few weeks to a maximum of 12 months.

 

After creation of an e-petition, it may take five working days before it is published online. This is because we have to check that the content of your petition is suitable before it is made available for signature.

 

If we feel we cannot publish the petition for some reason, we will contact the petition organiser within this time to explain. The petition organiser will be able to change and resubmit the petition if they wish. If this is not done within 10 working days, a summary of the petition and the reason why it has not been accepted will be published under the ‘rejected petitions’ section of the website.

 

When an e-petition has closed for signature, it will automatically be submitted to the Corporate Manager Democratic/Civic Support. In the same way as a paper petition and an acknowledgement will be received within 14 days. If the petition organiser would like to present the e-petition to a meeting of the Council they should contact us within five days of the petition closing.

 

A petition acknowledgement and response will be emailed to everyone who has signed the e-petition and elected to receive this information. The response will also be published on our website.