The council welcomes petitions from those who live, work, or study in Amber Valley and recognise that petitions are one way in which people can let us know their concerns. All petitions sent or presented to the council will receive an acknowledgement from the council within 10 working days of receipt. This acknowledgement will set out what we plan to do with the petition. We will treat something as a petition if it is identified as being a petition, or if it seems to us that is intended to be a petition.
Petitions can be sent to:
Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer - Amber Valley Borough Council, Town Hall, Ripley, Derbyshire, DE5 3BT
Petitions can also be presented to a meeting of the full council. Dates of these meetings can be found under council meetings. If you would like to present your petition to the council, or would like your councillor or someone else to present it on your behalf, please telephone 01773 841397 at least 10 working days before the meeting and he will talk you through the process. If your petition has received 1,200 signatures or more it will also be scheduled for a council debate and if this is the case, we will let you know whether this will happen at the same meeting or a later meeting of the council.
Petitions within this category will be considered as part of the council's published comments, complaints and compliments procedure. Petition organisers will receive a response from the appropriate chief officer.
Petitions falling within this category (unless it is a petition asking for a senior council officer to give evidence at a public meeting) will be considered in the first instance by the council's management team. The leader and deputy leader of the council, leader of the opposition group, local Member(s) and, if appropriate, committee chairman and portfolio holder, will be advised of the petition at the time of submission.
The action taken will be notified to all members of the council for information as well as the petition organiser and details will appear on this website.
If a petition contains not less than 1,200 signatures it will be debated by the full council 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 which 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 meeting. The petition organiser will be given five minutes to present the petition at the meeting and the petition will then be discussed by councillors. The council will decide how to respond to the petition at this meeting. They may decide to take the action the petition requests, not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate, or to commission further investigation into the matter, for example by the relevant committee.Where the issue is one on which the Cabinet are required to make the final decision, the council will decide whether to make recommendations to inform that decision. The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of this decision. This confirmation will also be published on this website.
Your petition may ask for a senior council officer to give evidence at a public meeting about something for which the officer is responsible as part of their job. For example, your petition may ask a senior council officer to explain progress on an issue, or to explain the advice given to elected members to enable them to make a particular decision.
If your petition contains at least 750 signatures, the relevant senior officer may be called to give evidence at a public meeting of the council's improvement & scrutiny committee. The senior staff that can be called to give evidence are:
You should be aware that the committee may decide that it would be more appropriate for another officer to give evidence instead of any officer named in the petition - for instance if the named officer has changed jobs. The committee may also decide to call a relevant councillor to attend the meeting. Improvement & scrutiny committee members will ask the questions at this meeting, but you will be able to suggest questions to the chairman of the improvement & scrutiny committee by contacting the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer up to three working days before the meeting.
Petitions submitted to the council must include:
Petitions should be accompanied by contact details, including an address, for the petition organiser. This is the person we will contact to explain how we will respond to the petition. 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.
Petitions which are considered to be vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate will not be accepted.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 does not follow the guidelines set out above, the council may decide not to do anything further with it. In that case, we will write to you to explain the reasons.
An acknowledgement will be sent to the petition organiser within 10 working days of receiving the petition.It will let them know what we plan to do with the petition and when they can expect to hear from us again. It will also be published on this web page.
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 enough signatures to trigger a council debate, or a senior officer giving evidence, then the acknowledgement will confirm this and tell you when and where the meeting will take place.If the petition needs more investigation, we will tell you the steps we plan to take.
If the petition applies to a planning or licensing application, or is a statutory petition (for example requesting a referendum on having an elected mayor), or on a matter where there is already an existing right of appeal, such as council tax banding and non-domestic rates, other procedures apply. Further information on all these procedures and how you can express your views is available here:
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.
To ensure that people know what we are doing in response to the petitions we receive, the details of all the petitions submitted to us will be published on our website, except in cases where this would be inappropriate. Whenever possible we will also publish all correspondence relating to the petition (all personal details will be removed).
Our 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:
In addition to these steps, the council will consider all the specific actions it can potentially take on the issues highlighted in a petition.
If your petition is about something over which the council has no direct control (for example local transport or hospital services) we will consider making representations on behalf of the community to the relevant body. The council works with a large number of local partners and where possible will work with these partners to respond to your petition. If we are not able to do this for any reason (for example if what the petition calls for conflicts with Council policy) then we will set out the reasons for this to you. You can find more information on the services for which the council is responsible by using the A-Z index on this website.
If your petition is about something that a different council is responsible for we will give consideration to what the best method is for responding to it. This might consist of simply forwarding the petition to the other council, but could involve other steps.In any event we will always notify you of the action we have taken.
If you feel that we have not dealt with your petition properly, the petition organiser has the right to request that the council's improvement & scrutiny committee reviews the steps that the council has taken in response to your petition.It is helpful to everyone, and can improve the prospects for a review if the petition organiser gives a short explanation of the reasons why the council's decision is not considered to be adequate.
The committee will endeavour to consider your request at its next meeting, although on some occasions this may not be possible and consideration will take place at the following meeting. Should the committee determine we have not dealt with your petition adequately, it may use any of its powers to deal with the matter. These powers include instigating an investigation, making recommendations to the cabinet and arranging for the matter to be considered at a meeting of the full council.
Once the appeal has been considered, the petition organiser will be informed of the results within 5 working days. The results of the review will also be published on this website.
If your petition relates to a complaint against the council and you are dissatisfied with the council’s response and feel that the council is at fault in some way, you may wish to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. For further information go to www.lgo.org.uk or telephone the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Advice Team on 0300 061 0614.
Contact the team directly on 01773 570222 or email enquiry@ambervalley.gov.uk
