Petitions

View or support a current petition

You can view current petitions or add your support to an existing petition using our simple online service. You'll need to register as a new user the first time you use it.

We can only accept signatures from people who live, work or study in the Canterbury district - a valid postcode must be given.

View or support a petition

Create a petition

Petitions can be paper based or electronic, or a combination of the two if the wording is identical.

The petition must include a short statement on what it's about, which must relate to a council duty or power. It should also say what actions you want the council to take.

The Head of Corporate Governance will validate the wording of the petition and if it is accepted, it will be added to the list of current petitions.

We only accept e-petitions created on our own e-petitions site. You'll need to register as a new user the first time you use it.

Petitions submitted from third party websites, that ask for an officer response, or don't meet the number of signatures needed will be treated as normal requests and given to the appropriate department to look at.

You can log in to your account to create an online petition.

Paper petitions

You may want to run a paper petition instead of, or as well as, an e-petition. Each page of the petition must include the petition wording. All signatories must include their name, address and postcode.

Petitions will either be referred to a meeting of council or to an officer to look at who will reply directly.

Petitions that do not follow these guidelines may be rejected. If that happens the petition organiser will be informed of the reasons.

Submitting a petition to a council meeting

You can submit a petition for debate at Full Council which must be supported by at least 1,000 valid signatures.

It will be heard at the next available meeting. Agendas are published five clear working days before the meeting, so if you want it to be heard at a particular meeting you should contact democratic services who will tell you when the deadline to submit your petition is. 

If you want to take a petition that doesn't need debate to a Full Council meeting, you need to submit it by 12.30pm the day before the meeting.

If the petition relates to an item already on the agenda, it will be discussed as part of that item. All other petitions will be given to a committee or an officer to look at.

You can find more information and guidance on submitting a petition in our Constitution.