Introduction
Somerset Council welcomes petitions and recognises that they are one way in which people can let us know their concerns. Councils have discretion on how petitions are approached locally. This is Somerset Council’s Petition Scheme.
What is considered a petition
The Council treats as a petition:
- Any communication which is identified as being a petition.
- Communication that seems to us that it is intended to be a petition and has a minimum of 50 signatories of people who live, work or study in the Somerset Council area.
Petitions of 5000 signatures (individually or collectively) will be treated as Large Petitions.
When a petition is received by the Council which relates to a local matter (particularly affecting a specific ward), the Council will notify each relevant local Councillor.
How to submit a Petition
Petitions can be posted, emailed or delivered by hand at any of our offices. E-petitions must follow the same guidelines as paper petitions. All e-petitions will run for 28 days (unless the Monitoring Officer agrees an alternative timescale) to ensure that the Council’s decision-making process is not delayed. The petition will need to be checked before it is published online and if the Council is unable to publish it, an officer will contact the Petition Organiser to explain why.
Petitions can be presented at Council meetings by placing the petition on the front table.
Completed petitions need to be given to the Council for the attention of the Monitoring Officer at the following address: Somerset Council, County Hall, The Crescent, Taunton, Somerset TA1 4DY.
Submit a petition online
All petitions submitted to Somerset Council will receive an acknowledgement from the Council within 3 clear working days of receipt.
If the petition is not valid it will be returned to the Petition Organiser with an explanation within 10 clear working days of receipt.
If the petition is valid the Petition Organiser will then be informed of how the petition will be handled within 20 clear working days of acknowledgement.
If the Petition Organiser is submitting the petition in response to a Council consultation or on a specific matter, it is important to identify the matter which it relates to, so that the Council can ensure that the petition is considered along with the original matter. See below for further guidance.
Please be aware any petition submitted to the Council will be publicly available and may form part of an agenda and published on the Council’s website. A petition must include:
- What it is about – it must relate to a responsibility of the Council (this must be on each page of the petition)
- What the petitioner wants the Council to do (this must be on each page of the petition).
- Name of everyone who supports the petition must be set out in an identifiable way.
- For paper petitions the signature of each petitioner.
- The name and contact details of the “petition organiser” or someone the petition organiser would like any correspondence about the petition to be sent. This can be either a postal or an email address. The Petition Organiser may include the addresses of petitioners, which may be useful to the Council, for example, in assessing the degree of local support or opposition to a particular matter, but this is not essential.
The Council’s Petition Scheme can be found here:
To submit your petition online, you can complete this Online Form
If you would like to submit an e-petition to Central Government, please visit Central Government e-petitions
Verification Number
The Local Government Act 2000 provides that electors in the council’s area can petition the council to hold a referendum on whether a local authority should change to a different form of governance.
A petition must be signed by at least five per cent of the local government electors for the district. In accordance with the above regulations, the number that is equal to five per cent of the number of local government electors shown in the revised register of electors having effect on the 15 February 2025 is 22588
This figure will have effect for the purposes of determining the validity of petitions presented from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. The number, equal to 5% of the local government electors for 2026, will be published within 14 days of the 15 February 2026. If this number is less than 22588 the number to be used for verification purposes in relation to any petition submitted for the period beginning on the date of publication of the lower number until 31 March 2026 shall also be that lower number.
Recent petitions
Previous Petitions
- 19 – Petition Received at Cabinet Meeting on 03.10.2022 – Against the Adoption of Public Space Protection Order Glastonbury – Redacted [4.85MB]
- 18 – Petition to Save the World One Field at a Time, Save Easthill Field NOW 15.02.22
- 17 – Petition Part 1 requesting a solution to problem of pigeons in Shepton Mallet – Redacted [10.25MB]
- 17 – Petition Part 2 requesting a solution to problem of pigeons in Shepton Mallet – Redacted [1.81MB]
- 16 – Petition to stop the Introduction of Sunday Car Parking Charges in Shepton Mallet – 163 signatures received 25.06.19 redacted [2.35MB]
- 15 – Petition for Motion to Declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency 25.02.19
- 14 – Against Somerset Councils using Glyphosate Weedkiller 01.12.18 – 82 names – Redacted [16.79MB]
- 13 Petition received 20.06.18 to protect the riverbank and footpath at River Frome [12.23MB]
- 12 – Sunday Car Park Charging in Frome 21.05.18 [4.4MB]
- 11 – Narrowing of the B3139 in Chilcompton – Redacted [15.57MB]