Issue - meetings

Councillor Harvey

To consider the recommendation of the Members’ Code of Conduct Committee on proposed changes to the Petition Scheme and recommend these to Council for approval.

Cabinet considered the recommendation from the Members’ Code of Conduct Committee on a review of the current Petition Scheme.

Resolved to recommend that Council approves the proposed changes to the Petition Scheme in relation to options for responses to petitions as follows:

(a)       Take, or support, the action the petition requests; or

(a)       not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate; or

(b)       note the petition and keep the matter under review; or

(c)       if the content relates to a matter on the agenda for the meeting the petition be considered when the item is debated; or

(d)       the petition be referred to the Cabinet or Overview and Scrutiny Committee for further consideration

Reason for the decision:

Providing Council with a wider choice of responses to petitions will allow it to respond in a more appropriate way to the matters that come before it.

To consider a report on a review of the Council’s Petition Scheme and make a recommendation to the Cabinet.

The Monitoring Officer outlined the background to the current Petition Scheme and reported that it limited the options available for the Council to respond to petitions in the most appropriate way.

As there was no longer a statutory requirement to have a Petition Scheme, the Council may adapt the Scheme as it sees fit to include a wider choice of responses to the matters that come before it.

The proposed options for responses to petitions were as follows:

(a)       take, or support, the action the petition requests; or

(b)       not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate; or

(c)       note the petition and keep the matter under review; or

(d)       if the content relates to a matter on the agenda for the meeting the petition be considered when the item is debated; or

(e)       the petition be referred to the Cabinet or Overview and Scrutiny Committee for further consideration

Resolved to recommend Cabinet to recommend the proposed changes to the Petition Scheme to Council for approval.