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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Room 3.4, 3rd Floor, 5 Strand, London, WC2 5HR. View directions

Contact: Mick Steward, Head of Committee and Governance Services  Tel: 020 7641 3134; Email:  msteward@westminster.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Membership

The Head of Committee and Governance Services to advise of any changes to the membership.

Minutes:

1.1     There were no changes to the membership.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations by Members and Officers of the existence and nature of any personal or prejudicial interests in matters on this agenda.

Minutes:

2.1     There were no Declarations of Interest.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 67 KB

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2017.

Minutes:

3.1     The Chairman, with the consent of the Members present, signed the minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2017 as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

4.

Update to the Council's Petition Scheme (See report of the Head of Committee and Governance Services) pdf icon PDF 239 KB

Report of the Head of Committee and Governance Services, attached.

Minutes:

4.1     The Head of Committee and Governance Services introduced the report.  He explained that the proposals aimed to streamline the process primarily in order to streamline the process and provide a quicker response to Petitioners.  Other changes recommended the removal of the requirement for petitions with over 10,000 signatures to trigger a full Council meeting debate and a modification to the E-petition process.

 

4.2     Councillor Boothroyd was not in favour of removing the opportunity to debate petitions at full Council but was otherwise supportive of the proposals.  It was confirmed that all petitions would receive a response.

 

4.3     Councillor Melvyn Caplan added that he supported the proposals as any petition with 10,000 signatures or more would receive serious consideration.

 

4.4     The Chairman advised that the consideration of petitions at Council meetings would be reviewed further as part of the review of these being carried out over the next 12 months.

 

 

 

Resolved:

 

That the Council be recommended to approve the following changes to the Council’s Petition Scheme:

 

1.       The removal of the requirement for petitions receiving 10,000 signatures or over to be debated at meetings of the full Council as reflected in the report.

 

2.       Response times to petitions received with less than 500 signatures be reduced from three months to twenty-eight days and for those containing over 500 signatures a report will be submitted to the next suitable Cabinet meeting; and

 

3.       Electronic petitions to be only accepted if they are submitted through the E-Petition Scheme hosted on the Council’s website.

5.

Any Other Business which the Chairman Considers Urgent