What will the council do when it receives my petition?

Back to article: Petitions

In this article

1. Petitions
2. What are the guidelines for submitting a petition?
3. What will the council do when it receives my petition?
4. How will the council respond to petitions?
5. Full council debates
6. Officer evidence
7. E-petitions
8. How do I 'sign' an e-petition?
9. What can I do if I feel my petition has not been dealt with properly?
10. Petitions received by South Kesteven District Council

An acknowledgement will be sent to the petition organiser within 14 days of receiving the petition. It will let them know what we plan to do with the petition and when they can expect to hear from us again. It will also be published on our website.

• If we can do what your petition asks for, the acknowledgement may confirm that we have taken the action requested and the petition will be closed.
• If the petition has enough signatures to trigger a council debate, or a senior officer giving evidence, then the acknowledgment will confirm this and tell you when and where the meeting will take place.
• If the petition needs more investigation, we will tell you the steps we plan to take.

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

We will not take action on any petition which we consider to be vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate and will explain the reasons for this in our acknowledgement of the petition.

To ensure that people know what we are doing in response to the petitions we receive the details of all the petitions submitted to us will be published on our website, except in cases where this would be inappropriate. Whenever possible we will also publish all correspondence relating to the petition (all personal details will be removed).