6. Are there petitions which the Council will not accept?
The vast majority of petitions will be accepted provided they meet with the requirements. However, there are certain circumstances when petitions will not be accepted by the Council’s Monitoring Officer, including:
- Petitions considered to be vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate (such as for political campaigning). We will explain the reasons in our acknowledgement of receipt of the petition.
- Petitions which are identical or very similar to a petition that has already been presented to the Council in the past 12 months.
- The period immediately before an election or referendum we may need to deal with the petition differently – if this is the case we will explain the reasons and give the petition organiser revised timescales which will apply.
- Petitions which relate to planning or licensing application, or is a statutory petition (such as requesting a referendum on whether the Council should continue to have an elected mayor), or is a matter where there is already an existing right of appeal such as council tax banding and non-domestic rates. We will advise the petition organiser what will happen to petitions under this category.
- Petitions which relate to a subject where consultation by the Council is currently being undertaken or is due to be undertaken in the next six months. We will ensure the petition is included as part of the consultation and contact the petition organiser to give them details of the consultation.
- Where the identities of a sufficient number of the signatories to the petition cannot be verified.