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Final vsn Dec 2010.1
Bristol City Council Petitions Scheme
1. Introduction
1.1. The council welcomes petitions and recognises that petitions areone way in which people can let us know their concerns. All petitionssent or presented to the council will receive an acknowledgementfrom the council within 15 working days of receipt.1.2. This acknowledgement will set out what we plan to do with thepetition. We will treat something as a petition if it is identified asbeing a petition, or if it seems to us that it is intended to be apetition.1.3. Paper petitions can be sent to:Democratic Services ManagerBristol City Council,Council House,College Green,Bristol, BS1 5TRFax: 0117 9222146Email:democratic.services@bristol.gov.ukTelephone: 0117 92 223861.4. Or be created, signed and submitted online by following this link:http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/council-and-democracy/consultations/petitions/  1.5. Petitions can also be presented to a meeting of the council. Thesemeetings take place approximately every 6 weeks, dates and timescan be found herehttp://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Council-Democracy/Elected-Representatives/committee-meeting-finder.en?Task=list_month&year=&month= .1.6. If you would like to present your petition to the council, or would likeyour councillor or someone else to present it on your behalf, pleasecontact Democratic Services on (0117) 922 2387
 
at least 10 working
 
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days before the meeting and they will talk you through the process.1.7. If your petition has received 3500 signatures or more from peoplewho live, work or study in Bristol it can then trigger a full councildebate
[see page 7] 
and if this is the case we will discuss with thelead petitioner the options for enabling this to take place.1.8. You can also submit petitions to the Cabinet and committees(including scrutiny commissions). Details of when these meetingstake place can also be found on the Council’s website.
2. What are the guidelines for submitting a petition
2.1. Petitions submitted to the council under the terms of this schememust include:
•
A clear and concise statement covering the subject of the petition.It should state what action the petitioners wish the council to take
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The name and address and signature of any person supportingthe petition
•
A minimum of 50 signatures of people who live, work or study inthe Bristol local authority area2.2. Petitions should be accompanied by contact details, including anaddress, for the petition organiser who must also live, work or studyin the Bristol local authority area. This is the person we will contactto explain how we will respond to the petition. The contact details ofthe petition organiser will not be placed on the website. If the petitiondoes not identify a petition organiser, we will contact signatories tothe petition to agree who should act as the petition organiser.2.3. If your petition does not reach the minimum requirement of 50signatures, particularly where the issue relates to a small locality, wewill seek to advise you of other ways in which your views could beconsidered. A petition with fewer than 50 names will be consideredif the signatories comprise a majority of the residents and/orstakeholders affected by the issue raised.2.4. A short form is available to download here (see Appendix 2 link to
 
Final vsn Dec 2010.3
follow), which enables you to easily set out the main summaryinformation we require when submitting your petition.2.5. If you want to submit a petition to a specific meeting of the council,Cabinet or any committee meeting (including scrutiny commissions)then you need to ensure that we receive a completed petitionssubmission form or at the very least, provide us with details of thepetition subject matter, number of signatures and your contactdetails by
no later than 12.00 noon on the working day beforethat meeting
to enable it to be submitted there.2.6. Please note petitions submitted by the petitioner to meetings of thecouncil will not be discussed in detail at that point, unless there is anagenda item specifically relating to that issue. Petitions received inthis way will be passed to the appropriate councillor, officer or forumfor proper consideration.2.7. Petitions which are considered to be vexatious, abusive or otherwiseinappropriate will not be accepted.2.8. In the period immediately before an election or referendum we mayneed to deal with your petition differently – if this is the case we willexplain the reasons and discuss the revised timescale which willapply. If a petition does not follow the guidelines set out above, thecouncil may decide not to do anything further with it. In that case, wewill write to you to explain the reasons.
3. What will the council do when it receives my petition?
3.1. An acknowledgement will be sent to the petition organiser within 15working days of receiving the petition. It will let them know what weplan to do with the petition and when they can expect to hear fromus again. It will also be published on our website.3.2. If we can do what your petition asks for, the acknowledgement mayconfirm that we have taken the action requested and the petition willbe closed. If the petition has enough signatures to trigger a councildebate, or a senior officer giving evidence, then theacknowledgment will confirm this and tell you when and where the
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