Petition scheme

Petitions for debate

If a petition meets the criteria for acceptance and contains more than 1,500 signatures it will be debated by a meeting of the full council (750 for purely local matters, affecting no more than one ward). This means that the issue raised will be discussed at a meeting which all councillors can attend. The council will try to consider the petition as its next meeting, although this may not always be possible.

The petition must be handed to the petitions officer at least 10 clear working days before the council meeting. This is to ensure that it is a valid petition and that is put on the agenda for the meeting. Petitions for debate will not be considered at the council meetings which agree the corporate plan or the budget (usually the July and February meetings) neither can it be presented to the council AGM (usually in May).

The petition organiser (or someone speaking on his/her behalf) will be given five minutes to present the petition at the meeting and the petition will then be discussed for a maximum of 20 minutes. The council will usually decide how to respond to the petition at the meeting. Where the issue is one on which the council’s cabinet are required to make the final decision the council will decide whether to make recommendations to inform that decision.

Petitions which are either consultation petitions, statutory petitions or petitions to hold an officer to account will not qualify to be petitions for debate.

Sending in a petition for debate

The cirector of legal and democratic services is the petitions officer, who is responsible for receiving, managing and reporting all other petitions sent to the council.  Please send petitions to:

The director of legal and democratic services 
Ealing Council, 5th Floor, Perceval House, 14/16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL.

If you want to discuss your petition contact the clerk to full council, Keith Fraser:
Telephone: 020 8825 7497
Email: baileysa@ealing.gov.uk

Alternatively, contact democratic services:

Email: democraticservices@ealing.gov.uk