Petitions information and advice

Anyone who lives, works or studies in North Yorkshire, including people under 18, can sign or organise a petition and trigger a response.

Petitions can be submitted in paper form or online through our e-petitions scheme. Petition signatories must be able to demonstrate a local connection through living, working or studying in North Yorkshire.

We will treat something as a petition if it is identified as being a petition, or if it seems to us that it is intended to be a petition.

We will not take action on any petition which we consider to be vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate and will explain the reasons for this in our acknowledgement of the petition. The determination of whether a petition is vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate for a response, will be carried out by the Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services.

In the period immediately before an election or referendum, we may need to deal with a petition differently - if this is the case, we will explain the reasons and discuss the revised timescale which will apply.

This petitions scheme does not apply where a petition that has been submitted relates to:

a matter for which the council has no responsibility;
a matter which does not affect the council’s area;
a planning application. Where a petition that has been submitted relates to a planning application, it will be treated as 'letters of representation' and be part of the 'letters of representation process'. It will no longer be treated as a petition under the council’s petitions scheme. Details of the petition will be made available on the council public access online database of planning applications;
an application made under the Licensing Act or the Gambling Act. Where a petition relates to such an application, it will be treated as a representation as part of the process for consideration of the application;
a matter where there is already an existing recourse to a review or right of appeal, such as council tax banding and non-domestic rates, where other procedures apply;
parking restrictions. Where a petition relates to parking restrictions it will be dealt with under our parking petitions scheme which allows anyone to raise a petition about the parking restrictions in place for a specified location;
a matter which is subject to public consultation by the council. Where a petition relates to a live consultation it will be treated as a consultation response and dealt with as part official of the consultation. Where a petition relates to a consultation which closed within the preceding six months / 12 months no action will be taken on the petition.;
council policy or proposed changes to policy, and a public consultation is being undertaken: the petition will be treated as a consultation response and considered by the ultimate decision-making body. It will no longer be treated as a petition under the council’s petitions scheme;
a council policy approved within the last six months;
matters subject to prescribed statutory requirements (for example requesting a referendum on having a directly elected mayor);
confidential staffing matters;
the same or similar subject as one that the council has received and dealt with in the previous six months.

Details of petitions affecting particular divisions that have been excluded will be sent to the Members representing those divisions.

Submitting a paper petition

Paper petitions submitted must include:

a clear and concise statement about the subject of the petition
a statement of what action the petitioners wish us to take
the name and address (including postcode) and signature of any person supporting the petition
contact details, including an address and postcode, for the petition organiser

The contact details of the petition organiser will not be placed on the website. If the petition does not identify a petition organiser, we will contact signatories to the petition to agree who should act as the petition organiser.

The details of the signatories to the petition will not be placed on the website.

If a petition does not follow the guidelines set out above, we may decide not to do anything further with it. In that case, we will write to the petition organiser to explain the reasons.

You can use our cover sheet and signature sheet documents as templates for your petition, if you wish. You can ask for copies of these documents at democraticservices.central@northyorks.gov.uk

Paper petitions of any size should be sent to:

The Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)
North Yorkshire Council
County Hall
Northallerton
DL7 8AD

Alternatively, scanned copies may be sent by email to: democraticservices.central@northyorks.gov.uk

Submitting an ePetition

The North Yorkshire Council website has the facility to create an electronic petition or ePetition. Further information on this is provided below.

We will also accept electronic petitions that have been created and managed through other websites such as change.org.

An ePetition organiser will need to provide us with their name, postal address including postcode, email address and contact telephone number. The name of the petition organiser (but no other contact details) will be published alongside details of the petition.

An ePetition must include the name and postcode of any person supporting the petition.

The ePetition organiser will also need to decide how long their petition will be open for signatures. Most ePetitions run for six months, but it can be a shorter or longer timeframe, up to a maximum of 12 months.

An ePetition must also include a clear and concise statement about the subject of the petition, and a statement of what action the petitioners wish us to take.

When an ePetition is created, it may take up to five working days before it is published online. This is because we have to check that the content of the ePetition meets the guidelines before it is made available for signature.

Submit an ePetition

How to ‘sign’ an ePetition

All ePetitions currently available for signature on our website can be viewed here.

If you have any queries around petitions, you can contact us at democraticservices.central@northyorks.gov.uk

How we will respond to petitions

An acknowledgement will be sent to the petition organiser(s) within ten working days of a paper petition being received or an ePetition closing, It will confirm the appropriate course of action and tell you when and where, if appropriate, any meeting will take place. If the petition needs more investigation, we will tell you the steps we plan to take. We will also let them know when you can expect to hear from us again.

The 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:

if we can do what the petition asks for, the acknowledgement may confirm that we have taken the action requested and the petition will be closed
dependent on how many signatures a petition has it will be dealt with in one of the following ways:
- between one and 499 signatories – the matter is responded to by the relevant service/department
- between 500 and 30,774 – there is a debate at the appropriate Area Committee
- above 30,775 – there is a debate at council (based on ONS 2021 census population figure)

If the petition is about something over which we have no direct control (for example the local railway or hospital), we will consider making representations on behalf of the community to the relevant body.

How a petition is debated

Petitions supported by a significant proportion of people from a local area, or the county area as a whole, will be presented to a meeting of the relevant area committee or to a meeting of council for debate. This depends on the number of signatories, and whether it relates to a matter of concern to a particular locality, or a matter of county-wide interest, as follows:

if a petition contains 500 signatures or more, it will be scheduled for debate at the next meeting of the appropriate area committee
if there is the equivalent of five percent (30,775) of the county-wide population as signatories, the petition will be scheduled for a council debate (based upon the ONS mid-2021 census population).

Area committees usually take place four times a year, and council takes place quarterly. Dates and times may be found here.

If a petition meets the threshold for debate at an area committee or council, then Democratic Services will contact the petitioner and invite them to introduce the petition at the meeting.

Following receipt, we will endeavour to consider the petition at the next appropriate meeting, although on some occasions, this may not be possible and consideration will then take place at the following meeting.

At the meeting, the petition organiser will be given five minutes to present the petition and the petition will then be discussed by councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes. A decision on how to respond to the petition will be agreed at the meeting. They may decide:

to take the action the petition requests if appropriate to so and they are able to do so under delegated powers
not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate
to commission further investigation into the matter, for example by a relevant committee
where the issue is one on which the executive are required to make the final decision, the area committee/council will decide whether to make recommendations to inform that decision

The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of the decision and the decision will be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, published on our website.

Further information

Requesting a review of a petition

There is no right of review to the response of the council in respect of petitions. Where a lead petitioner is dissatisfied with the response provided by the council, they may submit a complaint and it will be considered under the council's complaints procedures, and not under this petitions scheme.

Data protection

To find out how we process your data in relation to petitions, please see our privacy notice.