Falkirk Council: Plans to allow people to present petitions - if they have more than 50 signatures

It will mean campaigners can attend a council or committee meeting to formally hand over their petition while a lead petitioner can address the meeting.

For a petition to be considered, it will need at least 50 signatures from residents of the Falkirk council area, who must be aged 12 or over.

There have been plenty of petitions in recent years including 5500 signatures against the closing of Bo’ness Recreation Centre; more than 2000 protested about proposals to close Polmonthill Snowsports Centre; and hundreds demanding action when the bus to and from Tamfourhill was cancelled.

But there has not been a formal process for handing them over.

While the process has yet to be finalised, members have agreed that petitions will be made using the Participate+ platform, or in writing to the Chief Governance Officer, Colin Moodie.

Mr Moodie said: “I think how this is envisaged is that it is an opportunity for communities to draw an issue to the attention of councillors and the strength of feeling within a community.

“It’s not there for the committee to make a decision. I think they may then call for more information before they are able to take any decision to address the issue being raised by the community through the committee process.”

Mr Moodie stressed that the new process would not replace the ability for members of the public to speak at council meetings if an issue was being discussed.

As happens at the moment, individuals and groups will still be able to ask to make a deputation to put their points across when a matter is on the agenda for any meeting that is held in public.

Falkirk Council’s chief governance officer will determine whether a petition is valid and if so the committee to which it will be submitted.

There will be guidelines about what is not acceptable, for example, if they contain defamatory or offensive statements or don’t relate to matters that are within the Council’s powers.

Councillors agreed to introduce the process as part of a wider review of standing orders, the council’s written rules.

A working group has been discussing changes and updates to the standing orders and the final approval is expected to be given in June.

The current scrutiny committees will also be merged into one larger committee of 15 members.

Changes will include moving the date of full council and executive meetings to Thursdays.

At the moment council meetings are usually on Wednesdays and executives on Tuesdays.