Lib Dems call for e-petitions

11.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 11th Jun 2008

Post Office Petition

Ahead of a key debate this Thursday which could see the council introduce e-petitioning, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Brian Watkins has called on the council to adopt the idea in order to improve community engagement.

The Council's Scrutiny Committee will consider the Liberal Democrat proposal that an e-petition site be established on the council's main website. This would allow members of the public to submit online petitions to the council and sign existing petitions. The report going before the committee will show that the running and set-up costs of the scheme are minimal and the Lib Dems believe the benefits of the scheme would far outweigh any costs.

Group Leader and Eaton Councillor Brian Watkins commented "The introduction of e-petitions would be a positive move forward for the City Council. It would show a further willingness to engage with the community, and extend measures to improve participatory democracy. As a council we need to make sure people have a voice and their concerns and problems are listened to and not dismissed."

A recent New Local Government Network (NLGN) research paper said that councils should follow the example of the Scottish Parliament and Prime Ministers Office and introduce e-petitioning. The paper argues that allowing citizens to publicly petition councils to debate and review spending and policy commitments would give them direct influence over how local services are delivered and encourage greater democratic participation.

Under Lib Dem plans if a petition was on a subject relevant to the council and signed by 100 local residents it would be debated by the council. The petition would go before one of the council's committees to be considered. If the committee decided to go against the recommendations of the petition they would have to offer the signatories a clear reason why.

As Brian Watkins points out "Our first task is to make petitioning easier then we have to put the mechanisms in place to ensure the council takes on board the ideas of the petition. Too often people go to the trouble of organising petitions for them just to be ignored and end up gathering dust in a council office somewhere. Consultation needs to be genuine and not just a PR exercise."

The cross-party Scrutiny Committee will make a decision on e-petitioning during their meeting on Thursday at City Hall. The e-petition initiative is part of a strategy by the Liberal Democrats to improve community engagement and make sure that the council is listening to people's concerns about things like the closure of school playing fields, post offices and rising fuel bills.