Threshold to debate public petitions 'too high'

Public petitions to City of Wolverhampton Council should have a lower threshold for being debated, according to the authority's opposition leader.

Conservative Simon Bennett said the requirement to collect 5,000 signatures before the full council debated an issue was "far beyond the realistic engagement levels of Wolverhampton residents".

At a meeting on Wednesday he is set to call for the authority to reduce the figure to 1,000 signatures.

About 20 petitions have been launched in the decade during which the council has had a system for them to be lodged online, but none has ever reached the level to be formally debated by members.

The closest petitioners came to earning a debate was in 2020, when the authority announced plans to close its outdoor education centre in Snowdonia.

That collected 404 signatures, less than a tenth of the number required for a discussion by the full council, and below a fifth of the 2,500 required for a lower-level scrutiny committee debate.

The petition was mentioned to cabinet members when they met to decide on the closure, after which they went ahead with the plan.

The second most popular petition called on the council to reverse the "ill-advised, unwelcome and costly decision" to take the cafe at Northycote Farm into council control.

That received the support of only 107 signatories in eight months in 2016-17.

Eight other petitions did not get any signatures at all, for demands ranging from speed bumps on Myatt Avenue to the provision of a dog cafe.

In a motion due to be put to Wednesday's meeting, the Conservative group leader said: "Lowering the thresholds would strengthen public participation, increase transparency, and restore the petitions process as a credible route for democratic involvement."

He added that other authorities had lower levels for considering petitions.

Birmingham, with a population four times larger than Wolverhampton, requires petitions to reach four times as many signatures, 20,000, before a full council debate.

Walsall demands 1,500, while Dudley Council requires 3,000 names.

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