12. What can I do if I feel my petition has not been dealt with properly?
If you feel that we have not dealt with your petition properly, the petition organiser has the right to appeal and request the Council’s relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review the steps that the Council has taken in response to your petition. It is helpful to everyone, and can improve the prospects for a review if the petition organiser gives a short explanation of the reasons why they feel the council’s response is not considered to be adequate.
The Committee will endeavour to consider your request at its next meeting, although on some occasions this may not be possible and consideration will take place at the following meeting. Should the Committee determine we have not dealt with your petition adequately, it may use any of its powers to deal with the matter.
These include:
- instigating an investigation
- making recommendations to the Leader
- arrange for your request to be considered by a meeting of the council if it considers the council has seriously neglected its responsibility to listen to local people
Once the appeal has been considered the petition organiser will be informed of the results within five working days. The results of the review will also be published on our website.