Petitions
PETITIONs
1. Petitions regarding matters affecting the area or the functions of the Council or relating to consultation exercises or pursuant to specific legislation may be accepted at the start of an Ordinary Council meeting. Petitions will not be considered at the Annual Meeting of Council or at an Extraordinary Meeting of Council unless the Extraordinary Meeting is convened to consider the subject matter of the Petition.
2. Petitions must be 'signed' (in person or by name, if electronic) and contain the name, email address and contact details of the 'petition organiser', who should live, work or study in the area.
3. A Petition may be presented to and received by a meeting of the Council. Where it contains at least 500 signatories or petitioners, the appropriate Director will prepare a report which, together with the Petition, will be presented to Full Council. Council may debate the Petition and/or refer the Petition to the appropriate decision-making body for further consideration.
4. Petitions which have fewer than 500 signatories will be presented to but not debated at a meeting of the Council and shall be referred to the relevant Director(s).
5. Petitions that are considered by the Corporate Services Director or the Monitoring Officer to be vexatious, frivolous, abusive, potentially defamatory or otherwise inappropriate will not be accepted, nor Petitions that relate to confidential or exempt information or individual employee matters, including appointments, dismissals, pay, superannuation, complaints, grievances, or other personnel or confidential matters, including complaints, grievances or other such related matters regarding Councillors.
6. Any Petition that raises issues of competence or misconduct of Officers will be referred to the Chief Executive (or to the Director of Corporate Resources and Monitoring Officer, in respect of the Chief Executive) or to the Monitoring Officer regarding allegations of Councillor incompetence or misconduct and will be considered under the City Council’s Standards Committee procedures, and not under this Petitions Procedure Rule.
7. Any request to speak in relation to the Petition must be made by midday at least three days before the meeting and include the details of the Petition and the speaker’s contact details and whether they live work or study in the area.
8. If the Petition applies to a Planning or Licensing application, is a statutory Petition (for example requesting a referendum on having an elected mayor), or on a matter where there is already an existing right of appeal, such as Council Tax banding and non-domestic rates, then other procedures will apply. Further information on all these procedures and how views can be expressed are available on the Council’s website www.lancaster.gov.uk and from Customer Services (customerservices@lancaster.gov.uk).
9.The council welcomes e-petitions which can be created and submitted on our e-Petitions page. E-petitions must follow the same guidelines as paper petitions as set out above.
If you have any queries about the Petitions scheme, please contact us.
Last updated: 10 July 2019