Full council can debate your petition if you’ve collected more than 1,250 signatures. You have to let us know that you’ve reached 1,250 signatures at least 10 working days before the meeting. This gives us enough time to verify the number and publish it in the agenda.
Although the councillors will try to discuss your position at the meeting, it’s not always possible. If this happens your petition will be considered at the next full council meeting.
You’ll have up to 3 minutes to present your petition and the appropriate committee chairperson will respond. Councillors with then have up to 15 minutes to discuss the petition and decide how they’ll respond to it.
Councillors may decide:
- to note the petition and suggest an appropriate committee should consider it
- to take the action you've requested in your petition
- not to take the action you've requested for reasons put forward in the debate
- to suggest further investigation into the matter by a relevant committee
If councillors suggest that the relevant committee should make a decision on the issue, they may make recommendations to inform that decision.
We’ll send you written confirmation of this decision and publish it on our website.
If the action you’ve suggested has any financial or legal implications and councillors decide to take the action, we have to submit a report to the next meeting for consideration. Then the action can finally be approved or denied.