Petitions to the Council

A petition is a statement about a local issue, supported by the signatures of local residents or those directly affected. 

A petition can be submitted by a person of any age who lives, works or studies in the district of Hart.

You can send us a paper petition or set up an electronic petition, also known as an e-Petition. Petitions in writing should be sent to:
Committee Services
Hart District Council 
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

You can set up an electronic petition on the e-Petition page of this website. You will be required to register and provide the Council with basic personal information so that we can contact you about your e-Petition. The information will only be used for this purpose, although we may need to pass your details to the relevant department to enable them to respond to the issues you raise. For more information on this please read our privacy webpage.

You can see the active petitions on the e-Petition page of this website.

If you sign an e-Petition on the website, you will be required to provide us with personal information to enable us to verify that the signatures collected are genuine. Your name (but no other details) will be published on the e-Petition website. We will only use the information you provide for this purpose.

• Include a clear statement covering the subject of the petition and state what action the petitioners wish the Council to take.
• Include the name, address and signature of any person supporting the petition and whether they live, work or study in the district of Hart area
• Be a topic that relates to the functions or services delivered by the Council, or other public services for which the Council has shared delivery responsibilities (ie waste collection services)
• Petitions should not disclose matters that are personal or confidential, abusive or otherwise inappropriate
• The petition organiser should provide contact details, including an address. This is the person the Council will contact and will not be placed on the website.

The number of signatures you require for your petition to be debated at a meeting depends on which meeting it is:

• Over 1000 signatures will be presented at Council/ Cabinet depending on whether the matter is a Council or Executive function
• Between 500 and 1,000 signatures will be presented at Overview & Scrutiny Committee
• Less than 500 signatures will be dealt with by the relevant Head of Service in consultation with the respective Cabinet Portfolio Holder.

Our response to your petition will depend on what you ask for and how many signatures it contains. We will also consider what alternative action we can take e.g. holding a meeting with you, referring the petition to a councillor or officer.

If a petition contains enough signatures, the issue will be discussed at the next appropriate committee meeting. This does not mean the petition will be heard at the next meeting.

At the meeting the petition organiser will be given three minutes to present the petition. The petition will then be discussed by councillors for a maximum of 20 minutes.

The councillors 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
• To commission further investigation into the matter, for example by a relevant committee.

Where the issue is one on which the Council's Cabinet is required to make the final decision, the councillors will decide whether to make recommendations to inform that decision.

The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of this decision and the result could be published on the website.