Petition Power as Lib Dem Councillors say, "Less is More"

Cllr Nick Charsley, Liberal Democrat Leader on Bedford Borough Council, was celebrating with other Liberal Democrat Councillors yesterday as they managed to persuade the Council meeting to support a drastic reduction in the number of signatures needed for the public to call for a debate at Full Council.

Cllr Charsley said, "The recommendations are that the Council can choose a limit up to 5% of the population for petitions to call Councillors to account. This is a ridiculously high number, around 8,000, so Officers recommended 1,000, or 100 if it is for an issue covering a ward. Liberal Democrat Councillors felt that was still far too high and proposed 30 signatures for ALL petitions.

"At the committee that recommended the figures to Full Council the other parties went for 500 and 100 but by the time we'd got to Full Council we'd managed to pursued some Councillors that 30 was high enough. It is disappointing that some Members of other parties still tried to keep the upper limit."

The new rule now means that local residents can put petitions into Full Council meetings and trigger a debate with only 30 signatures. This will open up the Council and help people to understand that the Council is there for them and they can interact with it.

Cllr Charsley concluded, "It probably won't make much difference to the number of petitions we receive as a Council, but if it does, that's great news for democracy and people power."

Note: The proposal to reduce the numbers to 30 was put by Liberal Democrat Councillors at General Purposes Committee on July 13th. This was voted against by Conservative, Independent and Labour Members- 4 against 3. A proposal was then put to set the number at 500, this was supported by Conservative, Independent and Labour Councillors and only voted against by the 3 Liberal Democrat Members.

The Conservative, Independent and Labour proposal of 500 was then put to Full Council on July 14th where it appears Liberal Democrat Members were able to persuade enough, but not all, Members of other parties to support a motion for 30 signatures. This is now the set figure for the Council.