East Suffolk Council Petition Scheme - How will the council deal with my petition?

Depending on the number of people that have signed the petition, it will be dealt with in one of the following ways:

• If your petition contains less than 50 signatures it will be treated in accordance with the council’s Compliments an Complaints Procedure. This means it will be referred to the relevant Head of Service for consideration and response. It may also be passed to the relevant ward member(s) and town/parish council for their consideration.
• If your petition has between 50 and 599 signatures it will be referred to the relevant Cabinet Member and Head of Service for a response.
• If your petition has between 600 and 1199 signatures it will be referred to the Scrutiny Committee for consideration. The Scrutiny Committee can then, if it wishes, refer any specific recommendations to the Cabinet/Full Council.
• Petitions with 600 signatures or more may call for evidence from a senior officer. Further information can be found under Officer petition evidence.
• If your petition has more than 1200 signatures it will automatically be referred to Full Council for consideration and debate. Further information can be found under Full Council petition debates.

The relevant ward member(s), Cabinet members and officers will be informed when a petition covering their wards/areas of responsibility is received and how/when the petition will be considered.

The lead petitioner will be informed in writing of the council’s response to the petition and this information will also be published on the council’s website. If a further meeting is to be held to consider the issues raised in the petition, the lead petitioner will be supplied with the relevant details and be given the opportunity to attend and address the meeting and, if appropriate, answer any questions posed at the meeting.

If the petition applies to a planning or licensing application, or is a statutory petition (for example requesting a referendum on having an elected mayor), or is about a matter where there is already an existing right of appeal, such as council tax banding and non-domestic rates, then we will notify you of the other existing procedures which apply.

If the petition is about something for which the council has no direct control, for example, the local railway or hospital, we will make representations on behalf of the community to the relevant body and, where possible, will work with these partners to respond to your petition.

If the petition is about something that a different council is responsible for, we will give consideration as to what the best method is for responding to it. This may simply involve forwarding the petition to the other council but could involve other steps. In any event, we will inform the lead petitioner of what action has been taken.

In the period leading up to an election or referendum we may need to deal with your petition differently – if this is the case we will explain the reasons and discuss the revised timescale which will apply.