E-Petition criteria

The Council may reject petitions that:

• Contain offensive, defamatory, discriminatory, or provocative language

• Include false information

• Are too similar to another petition submitted in the past six months

• Relate to confidential, commercially sensitive, or legally restricted information

• Name individuals where they can be easily identified

• Are submitted during a formal complaint or legal process

• Relate to statutory petitions, planning, or licensing matters, which have separate processes

All petitions are reviewed by Democratic Services to ensure they comply with the standards. Submission does not guarantee publication.

If a petition doesn’t meet the criteria, the lead petitioner will be informed in writing or via email. The title and reason for rejection will also be published on the Rejected E-Petitions page.

You can contact Democratic Services for advice or clarification about why your petition wasn’t accepted.

Your petition should be relevant to an issue that the Council has powers or duties or on which it has shared delivery responsibilities. It should also be submitted in good faith and be decent, honest and respectful.

Your petition may be rejected if the Council’s Monitoring Officer considers it:

• contains intemperate, inflammatory, abusive or provocative language,
• is defamatory, frivolous, vexatious, discriminatory or otherwise offensive, or contains false statements,
• is too similar to another petition submitted within the past six months,
• discloses confidential or exempt information, including information protected by a court order or government department,
• discloses material, which is otherwise commercially sensitive,
• names individuals, or provides information where they may be easily identified, e.g. individual officers of public bodies,
• makes criminal accusations,
• contains advertising statements,
• refers to an issue which is currently the subject of a formal Council complaint, Public Services Ombudsman for Wales complaint or any legal proceedings,
• where a petition is submitted in response to a public consultation being run by the Council, the petition will be acknowledged as part of that process and will be considered along with other consultation response. The Council will not necessarily respond to the petition separately in this case,
• relates to statutory petitions, or petitions relating to Local Authority Referendums which falls under the Local Authorities (Referendums) (Petitions and Directions) (Wales) Regulations 2001,
• relates to the Council’s planning or licensing functions as there are separate statutory processes in place for dealing with these matters, and
• does not relate to an issue upon which the Council has powers or duties or on which it has shared delivery responsibilities.