Newark and Sherwood District Council accused of making it more difficult for members of the public to have their petitions debated
Newark and Sherwood District Council has been accused of making it more difficult for members of the public to have their petitions debated.
Paul Baggaley, secretary of Newark Sports Association, voiced concerns over a rise in the threshold of signatures needed to debate a petition at a meeting of the full council.
Councillors unanimously voted to raise the number of signatures to trigger a debate from 500 to 1,000. This was in response to a change in the Localism Act 2011, which announced local authorities no longer had the obligation to provide a statutory petitions scheme.
Despite the change in law, the meeting heard such a scheme was still essential for residents from across the district to have their voices heard.
As a result of the change, the council now has greater discretion in how it deals with petitions and, in doing so, has consolidated elements of the former local and statutory scheme into a single scheme.
"The district council are going to make it more difficult for people to simply get their views heard," Mr Baggaley said.
"Straight away you have to get 1,000 signatures, which raises the bar in terms of the amount of signatures you have to get.
"What if you live in a village? You will probably struggle to get 1,000.
"What has happened at full council meetings is that people are able to speak, but no one really knew about this until recently.
"Now you have to speak to local councillors to support it."
The new scheme means those with less than 1,000 signatures can still present their petition to a full council meeting, however, it would not trigger a debate and be discussed.
The meeting heard the recent increase in the number of petitions presented to the council for debate under the previous scheme had raised a number of issues.
These included there being no deadline for submitting petitions; the threshold for requiring debate; who can present petitions for debate; and how to ensure all those signing petitions live or work within the district.
Now, petitions are required to be submitted at least ten working days prior to a specific council meeting for it to be presented or discussed; signatures will only be valid for people who live, work or study in the district and a valid postcode must be supplied, as well as, a valid email address in the case of e-petitions.
The council will also be able to proceed to debate even if the lead petitioner was not able to attend in addition to removing the need for council officers to give evidence at council meetings.
The scheme additionally allows the council to, if it feels appropriate, deal with a petition in a more convenient way if it did not meet the threshold for requiring a debate at full council.
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