Petitions and e-petitions scheme.

Transcription

1 Petitions and e-petitions scheme

2 How to submit a petition to Wolverhampton Homes Introduction Getting tenants and local people involved in our decision making is something which is really important to us. Petitions are just one way you can get involved in scrutinising the work we do and the services we deliver. Petitions are quite often used by people to demonstrate the strength of feeling about a particular issue. It can raise the awareness of a particular campaign and put issues on our agenda which we might not have picked up before. For a petition to be valid it just needs ten or more signatures from at least 5 households in Wolverhampton. Petitions will be presented to the Wolverhampton Homes Petitions Committee or the full Council meeting if there are more than 2,500 signatories. If you would like to present your petition to us or would like your Councillor or someone else to present it on your behalf then us at complimentsandcomplaints@wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk or visit the website at How do I submit a paper petition? To submit a paper petition, you need to use our official petitions form. You can download one of the forms from our website or by ing us. You can post the paper petitions to us at: Wolverhampton Homes, Customer Feedback Team, 29 Market Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 3AG. In order to process the petition, a name, address including postcode and signature must be clear for each petitioner. E-petitions You can also submit petitions online through the council s website:

3 When you sign an e-petition you will be asked to provide your name, address and a valid address. This will trigger an containing a link which you must click in order to confirm the address is valid. Once this is completed your signature will be added to the petition. People visiting the e-petition will be able to see your name in the list of those who have signed it but your contact details will not be visible. You will also need to decide how long you would like your petition to be open for signatures. Petitions can be open for a maximum of 12 months. When you create an e-petition, it may take up to five working days before it is published online. This is because we have to check that the content of your petition is suitable before it is made available for signature. If we feel we can t publish your petition for some reason, we ll contact you within this time to explain. You will be able to change and resubmit your e- petition if you wish. When your e-petition has reached its end date, you will need to submit it to Democratic Support, via the website, for processing as this is not done automatically. Your e-petition will be considered in the same way as a paper petition. What are the guidelines for submitting a petition? Because we believe in transparency and being open, in most cases we publish petitions on our website. For some cases, we may choose not to if the details are sensitive. Your petition needs to include: Details of the lead petitioner: include name, a contact address to where all correspondence will be sent and (if possible) an address and a phone number. This is the person we will contact to explain how we will respond to the petition. If the petition does not identify a lead petitioner, we will contact signatories to the petition to agree who should act as the lead petitioner. In the period immediately before an election or referendum we may need to deal with your petition differently if this is the case, we will explain the reasons and discuss the revised timescale which will apply. If a petition doesn t follow the guidelines, we may decide not to do anything further with it. In that case, we will write to you to explain the reasons. What it needs to say Tell us clearly what action you want Wolverhampton Homes to take. 3

4 Extra information Provide us with any additional information relevant to your petition and the reasons why you think we should take action This information will be made available to the Wolverhampton Homes Petitions Committee before it considers your petition. It shouldn t be any more than three sides of A4. Action you have taken before submitting the petition please provide a summary of the action you ve taken to try and resolve the issue including details of elected representatives, Wolverhampton Homes officers, council officers or other agencies, like the police for example, you have approached. What petitions shouldn t be We believe in being open and transparent but on some occasions we won t accept petitions which are seen to be offensive, inflammatory, false or defamatory. Petitions also shouldn t include information which is protected by a court order, commercially sensitive or confidential. It also shouldn t include the names of individuals, or information whereby they may be easily identified, in relation to criminal accusations. We also won t accept petitions which are the same or substantially similar to other petitions and which are lodged by or on behalf of the same person or organisation unless more than a year has passed since the original petition was considered by the Petitions Committee. What happens next? We ll send an acknowledgment to the lead petitioner once we ve received it. It will let them know what we plan to do with the petition and when they can expect to hear from us again. 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 over 2,500 valid signatures it will be scheduled for a debate at Council. We ll then let you know where and when the petition will be discussed and you will be asked if you can attend either of those meetings. Full Council Debates If a petition contains more than 2,500 signatures it will be debated by the full Council. The lead petitioner will be given five minutes to present the petition at the 4

5 meeting and the petition will then be discussed by councillors for a maximum of 40 minutes. The Council will decide how to respond to the petition at this meeting. Wolverhampton Homes Petitions Committee Petitions with fewer than 2,500 signatories will go to the Wolverhampton Homes Petitions Committee. The Committee has 3 members of the Wolverhampton Homes Board and meetings are held in public. The Committee will invite petitioners to give evidence to their meetings. Petitioners may also provide written evidence in support of their petition. The relevant Director or relevant Chief Officer will attend the meeting as well. If you can t, or don t want to attend, you can ask a local councillor to attend on your behalf. Alternatively, the Committee can deal with your petition in your absence. What can I do if I feel my petition has not been dealt with properly? If you feel that we have not dealt with your petition properly, the lead petitioner has the right to request the Council s Scrutiny Board to review the steps that we ve taken in response to your petition. The petition organiser needs to let the Customer Feedback Team know if they wish to request the Council s Scrutiny Board to review steps that we ve taken Once the appeal has been considered the petition or e-petition organiser will be informed of the results. Who should I contact if I need assistance or have any queries? You can contact our customer feedback team by ing them at complimentsandcomplaints@wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk 5