Petitions

Public petitions help communities become involved in the council's decision making processes.

Issues we will consider

Your petition should be about the services we provide or issues we are involved in that affect your community. You should clearly explain the purpose of the petition and what result you expect to achieve.

Issues we won't consider

If your issue is a comment or a complaint you should use our comments and complaints process rather than a petition.

We will not consider petitions that:

• refer to any current court, legislative or regulatory proceedings, for example planning or licensing applications
• are the same or very similar to petitions we have already considered in the last twelve months. To check this see our online petitions
• are submitted by councillors
• relate to a current or recent proposal that is subject to a specific council consultation/engagement exercise
• relate to individual or personal issues

What you should do before you send us a petition

Before submitting a petition, you should have:

• raised the issue with us first as a comment, complaint or email to the relevant department
• raised the issue with one of your councillors or the relevant community council where appropriate
• attached copies of your correspondence with the council, councillors and community council to with your petition

Submitting a petition

You can submit a petition by email, by post or by hand.

Your petition should be titled and include a statement of no more than 250 words which covers its purpose and details the results you would expect to achieve by presenting it.

It have a minimum of 50 signatories who must live in South Lanarkshire or be directly affected by the issue that the petition is raising. For small communities the Chair of the Petitions Committee may lower the minimum number of signatures needed.

The petition must include the following:

• your name or the name of the principal petitioner who must live in South Lanarkshire Council (we may check your eligibility)
• you or the principal petitioner’s address - all communication will be sent here
• the name, address and signature of any person supporting the petition

Names and addresses can be gathered both online and by paper. If you are going to use both a paper and online version, you should remove any repeat names before submitting it.

Online petitions

Online petitions can be submitted using our petitions website. Once approved your petition will be live for a month. Approval will take around 10 working days and will make sure the proposed petition is valid and meets the criteria. People who want to sign will have to register first using their name, address and email address - they must live in South Lanarkshire or be affected by the issue the petition is about.

Online petitions will display the following:

• title/subject of the petition
• the principal petitioner’s name
• the start and closing date

The Clerk to the Committee will notify the person who registered the petition (the principal petitioner) once a petition has reached the required number of signatures.

Paper petitions

Paper petitions should be typewritten or completed using a black pen. If you have any problems filling in the form, please contact the Clerk to the Committee.

If your petition is endorsed by a community council, a community council office bearer must countersign the petition at part two. Where relevant, you should also attach a copy of the minutes of the community council meeting when the support was approved.

Privacy and content of petitions

Information about any individual will not be used for any other purpose other than in relation to the petition. Our Privacy Statement sets out how we collect information and what we do with it.

You must make sure the information you send does not include:

• false or insulting statements
• information that is protected by an interdict or court order
• information that is commercially sensitive, confidential or that may cause personal distress or loss
• the names of individual officers of public bodies
• the names of other individuals or information whereby they may be easily identified
• offensive language, for example swear words, insulting, sarcastic or provocative language or other terms that could reasonably be considered offensive by the reader
• duplicate signatures

We will accept petitions in community languages and other formats. We will also arrange for interpretation and translation services, including British Sign Language if you need it. We will take account of your needs when making arrangements to hear petitions. If you need any support, you or your representative, should discuss these with the Clerk to the Committee.

What happens next

Once your petition has been approved a committee date will be allocated. This will depend both on the workload of the committee and also the time taken to complete the validation process.

The chair of the committee may invite petitioners to appear before the committee to speak in support of their petition to help the committee reach a decision. As a petitioner, you should indicate on the form if you want to make a statement to the committee.

You can speak for up to 10 minutes.  You may bring up to two supporters to the Committee who may speak on your behalf.

Councillors on the Committee may ask you questions relating to the issue or issues that have been raised in the petition.

If you need any help making a statement to the committee, for example translation and or interpretation, please contact the Clerk to the Committee in advance.

Following the consideration of a petition, the Public Petitions Committee will take a decision on action to be taken as follows:

• agree the issue(s) raised deserves further action and agree to refer the petition to another council committee, officer or other organisation
• agree the issue(s) raised does not merit further action or
• refer, with recommendations, for further action

You will be advised of the committee’s decision in writing within 10 working days of the Petition Committee meeting.