E-Petitions
What is an 'e-petition'?
Dover District Council welcomes petitions which are created
and submitted through our website. These 'e-petitions' must follow
the same guidelines as paper petitions.
How do I create an 'e-petition'?
The Petition Organiser will need to provide us with their name,
postal address and e-mail address in addition to the name of the
petition they wish to create and brief explanation of what the
petition hopes to achieve. The Petition Organiser would also
need to decide how long they would like the petition to
be open for signatures. Most petitions run for six months, but you
can choose a shorter or longer timeframe, up to 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 the council has
to check the content of your petition is suitable before it is made
available for signature.
If we feel that we cannot publish your petition for some reason,
we will contact you within this time to explain. You will be able
to change and resubmit your petition if you wish. If you do not do
this within 10 working days, a summary of the petition and the
reason why it has not been accepted will be published under the
‘reject petitions’ section of the website.
When an E-Petition has closed for signature, it will
automatically be submitted to the Democratic Support Team to
process. In the same way as a paper petition, the Petition
Organiser will receive an acknowledgement within 10 working
days. If as the Petition Organiser you would like to
present your e-petition to a meeting of the council, please contact
the Democratic Support Team within 10 working days of receipt of
the acknowledgement.
A petition acknowledgement and response will be e-mailed to
everyone who has signed the E-Petition and elected to receive this
information. The acknowledgement and response will also be
published on this website.
To create an e-petition, please e-mail democraticservices@dover.gov.uk
with details of your name, postal address and e-mail address,
the name of your proposed petition, start and expiry date of your
petition and what action you wish your petition to take.
How do I sign an 'e-petition'?
You can see all the e-petitions currently available for
signature on the council’s website. To be eligible to sign an
e-petition you must live, work or study within the Dover
District.
When you sign an e-petition you will be asked to provide your
name, your postcode and a valid e-mail address. When you have
submitted this information you will be sent an e-mail to the e-mail
address you have provided to confirm receipt of your email and that
your signature has been 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.
To sign an e-petition, please e-mail democraticservices@dover.gov.uk
with your name, post code and valid e-mail address and state
whether you live, work or study in the district and which petition
you wish to sign.
How will the Council respond to my 'e-petition'?
The Council’s response to a petition will depend on what a
petition asks for and how many people have signed it, but may
include one or more of the following:
- Taking the action requested in the petition;
- Consider the petition at a council meeting;
- Holding an inquiry into the matter;
- Undertaking research into the matter;
- Holding a public meeting into the matter;
- Holding a meeting with petitioners;
- Refer the petition to an overview and scrutiny committee or
another committee of the Council for consideration;
- Providing a written response to the petition organiser setting
out the Council’s views about the request in the petition;
and/or
- Take any other action that it considers appropriate including
taking no further action.
If your petition asks for a senior officer to give
evidence at a public meeting of the council about something for
which the officer is responsible as part of their job and contains
at least 800 verified signatures,
the relevant senior officer will give evidence at a public meeting
of either the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or the
Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.
An Overview and Scrutiny Committee is
a committee of councillors who are responsible for
scrutinising the work of the council – in other words, the overview
and scrutiny committee has the power to hold the council’s decision
makers to account.
If your petition contains more than 1,600 verified
signatures the full council will debate it unless it is a
petition asking for a senior council officer to give evidence at a
public meeting. This means that the issue raised in the petition
will be discussed at a meeting that all councillors can attend. The
council will endeavour to consider the petition at its next
meeting, although on some occasions this may not be possible and
consideration will then take place at the following scheduled
meeting.
Current e-petitions
|
Petition Name |
No.
of Signatures |
Start
Date |
Expiry Date |
Action Requested |
| Change the name of Dover District |
32 |
12 March
2012 |
01 November
2012 |
Deal, Dover, Sandwich and their surrounding villages all have
their own identity and the naming of the district as Dover is
detrimental to the fact. A new name for the district is required to
reflect how much our district has to offer. This will also help
encourage tourism and business investment to the district and I
propose changing it to 'Cinque Ports District' Council although the
final name should be debated before being agreed.
|
|
Withdrawal of £40 Green Waste Subscription Service
|
5 |
13 March 2012 |
01 June 2012 |
That the Council be asked to withdraw the Green Waste
subscription service and reinstate the previous free green waste
collection service with the green bag funded from Council Tax.
|
Expired e-petitions
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Petition Name |
No.
of Signatures |
Start Date |
Expiry Date |
Council Response |
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Rejected e-petitions
|
Petition Name |
Date
Submitted |
Reason for Rejection |
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Contact Democratic Support
Telephone: 01304 872304
E-mail: scrutiny@dover.gov.uk
