ePetitions rules and guidance

By signing or submitting a petition, you are confirming that you have read and accept the information on this page.

We hold the right to delete signatures, or entire petitions, if we suspect any of these rules are not followed.

Submit or sign an ePetition

Your information

• Anyone, regardless of their age, may sign or submit an ePetition as long as they live, work or study in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
• Your name will appear on any petition you are submitting or signing, for as long as the petition is available on the Council's website.
• Petitions will be archived on the Council's website.
• Your personal information will be used in accordance with the Council's personal information policy.
• You must provide a valid email address when registering for a Richmond Account as an activation e-mail will be sent to this address.

Rules and guidance

• Before submitting a petition, you must ensure you read and agree with the content of our Petition Scheme.
• The Council holds the right to reject your petition, or request amendments, if it believes your petition contains demonstrably false statements, or it deems it to be libellous, vexatious or otherwise inappropriate.
• The petition can only relate to matters that the Council can reasonably affect or influence; although you cannot submit a petition on planning or licensing applications, as these follow a statutory consultation process.
• Petitions will be set to run for a period of three calendar months.
• There is no deadline from submitting your petition to it needing to be placed on the Council's website. We will work to publish it as quickly as possible and the petition's closing date will be calculated from the publication date.
• All correspondence about petitions will be via e-mails and forms on the Council's website. We will not accept communication via telephone calls or letters that relates to ePetitions.

What happens next

• The petition will be presented to the relevant department who will be asked to respond directly to the petition submitter.
• If a petition attracts 500 signatures or more, it may be submitted to the next available meeting of the relevant service committee, for consideration, unless the petitioner wishes the petition to run for the remainder of the course of three calendar months (with the possibility of securing 1,000 or more signatures and therefore consideration at a Council meeting).
• If the petition gains 1000 signatures by the time it closes (and had not been considered by the relevant service Committee), it will be presented to Council where Councillors will hold a debate about it.

Response times

• Once submitted, your petition will be processed and you will be notified if it has been rejected or accepted.
• We will aim to contact you within 5 working days where we need to discuss your ePetition with you.