Petitions to South Norfolk Council

Further information

Presenting a Petition

South Norfolk Council welcomes petitions and recognises that petitions are one way in which people can let us know their concerns. All petitions sent or presented to the Council will receive an acknowledgement from the Council within 5 working days of receipt. This acknowledgement will set out what we plan to do with the petition.

Petitions can be submitted electronically via our e-petition system, by paper or a mixture of both.

Paper petitions can be sent to:

The Customer and Democracy Manager
South Norfolk Council
Swan Lane
Long Stratton
Norwich
NR15 2XE

Petitions can also be presented to a meeting of the Council. These meetings take place at least five times per year; dates and times can be found here. If you would like to present your petition to the Council, or would like your councillor to present it on your behalf, please contact a member of the Democratic Services team at least 5 working days before the meeting and they will talk you through the process.

What are the guidelines for submitting a petition?

Petitions submitted to the Council must include:

• A clear and concise statement covering the subject of the petition. It should state what action the petitioners wish the Council to take.
• The name and address and signature of any person supporting the petition

Petitions should be accompanied by contact details, including an address for the petition organiser. This is the person we will contact to explain how we will respond to the petition.

Petitions, which are considered to be vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate, will not be accepted. If a petition does not follow the guidelines set out above, the Council may decide not to do anything further with it. In that case we will write to the organiser to explain the reason, provided we have his/her address.

What will the Council do when it receives my petition?

An acknowledgement will be sent to the petition organise within 5 working days of receiving the petition. It will let them know what we plan to do with the petition and when they can expect to hear from us again. If we can do what your petition asks for, the acknowledgement may confirm that we have taken the action requested and the petition will be closed. If the petition has at least 10 signatures it will trigger a Council debate. The acknowledgement will confirm this and tell you when and where the meeting will take place. The organiser and up to four others may present the petition to the meeting but they may speak for no more than five minutes, in total. If the petition needs more investigation, we will tell you the steps we plan to take.

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, other procedures apply.

How will the Council respond to petitions?

Our response to a petition will depend on what a petition asks for and how many people have signed it, but may include one or more of the following:

• Taking the action requested in the petition
• Considering the petition at a Council meeting
• Holding an inquiry into the matter
• Undertaking research into the matter
• Holding a public meeting
• Holding a consultation
• Holding a meeting with petitioners
• Writing to the petition organiser setting out our views about the request in the petition.

If your petition is about something over which the Council has no direct control (for example the local railway or hospital) we will aim to make representations on behalf of the community to the relevant body. The Council works with a large number of local partners and where possible will work with these partners to respond to your petition. If we are not able to do this for any reason (for example if what the petition calls for conflicts with Council policy), then we will set out the reasons for this to you. You can find more information on the services for which the Council is responsible on the website.

If your petition is about something that a different Council is responsible for we will give consideration to what the best method is for responding to it. It might consist of simply forwarding the petition to the other council, but could involve other steps. In any event we will notify you of the action we have taken.

Full Council debates

If a petition contains at least 10 signatures it will be debated by the full Council unless it is a petition asking for a senior Council officer to give evidence at a public meeting. This means that the issue raised in the petition will be discussed at a meeting, which all councillors can attend. The petition organiser together with up to 4 others who have signed the petition will be given five minutes to present the petition at the meeting and the petition will then be discussed by councillors for a maximum of 10 minutes. The Council will decide how to respond to the petition at this meeting. They may decide to take the action the petition requests, not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate, or to commission further investigation into the matter, for example by a relevant committee. The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of this decision. This confirmation will also be published on our website.

What can I do if I feel my petition has not been dealt with properly?

Please contact the Customer and Democracy Manager.