Information and rules relating to online petitions

It is important that you read this information before submitting and/or signing a petition on the Council's website. By signing or submitting a petition, you are confirming that you have read and accept this information. The Council holds the right to delete signatures, or entire petitions, should it suspect any of the below rules are being broken.

General information about online petitions

  • Your name will appear on any petition you are submitting or signing, for as long as the petition is available on the Council's website.
  • Petitions will be archived on the Council's website.
  • Your personal information will be used in accordance with the Council's personal information policy.
  • Only sign a petition if you agree with what it says.
  • You must supply the Council with a valid e-mail address.
  • Your online petitions account will require activation via an e-mail sent to the address you have supplied.
  • If you have not received your activation e-mail, please check your SPAM filter and accept e-mails from democratic.services@richmond.gov.uk and petitions@richmond.gov.uk.
  • All correspondence about petitions will be via e-mails and forms on the Council's website. We will not accept communication via telephone calls or letters, that relates to ePetitions.
  • To sign or submit a petition, you must live, work, or study in Richmond upon Thames. You will be asked for an address when you register. This must be an address in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. This address can be for where you live, work, or study.

Information about your petition

  • When you are contacted by the Council's Democratic Services department, you must decide what type of petition you would like to submit. Information on petition types can be found below.
  • The Council holds the right to reject your petition, or request amendments, if we believe it is misleading, libellous, or it does not meet one or more of the current rules relating to petitions.
  • You have accepted the content of the Council's petitions scheme.
  • The petition can only relate to matters that the Council can reasonably affect or influence; although you cannot submit a petition on planning or licensing applications, as these follow a statutory consultation process.
  • Petitions can currently run for a maximum of 12 months, although you can choose to shorten this if you wish. We suggest a maximum of three months in order to keep issues current and will set all petitions to run for this period unless a different 'run-time' is specifically requested.

Petition types

  • Call for a Council debate - 1000 signatures are needed for it to be acted upon; or 5% of the population from a single ward, if the matter relates to a single ward issue.
  • Call for a senior Council officer to give evidence at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting - 750 signatures for the petition to be acted upon.

Response times

  • You can expect your petition submission to be acknowledged within 3 working days.
  • We will contact you about the content of your petition within 8 working days.
  • There is no deadline from submitting your petition to it needing to be placed on the Council's website.  We will work to publish it as quickly as possible and the petition's closing date will be calculated from the publication date.