Some Councils like Bristol City have set up E-petition sites to inform debate - signatures collected online are used to support or encourage the Council in particular directions. Should Stroud District Council follow this path? I'm not convinced that it is necessarily the role of the Council, but can see some benefits....Photo: Stroud District Council HQ at Ebley Mill
Some petitions can have positive outcomes that lead to change or show the extent of feeling on a particular issue. Petitions may also involve people in politics who don't normally get involved - they are also signed by many campaigners who sign petitions regularly - indeed I sign many online petitions each week.
Other petitions like the recent Road Pricing petition where the issue has not been properly discussed have possibly done more damage than good (see my blog for 13th Feb 2006) - where for example was a discussion about if not road pricing then what must we do to tackle climate change? Simplifying the debate in such a way sometimes doesn't help. Indeed too often the consequences of our actions on other species, other areas and future generations are not considered.
Let us not forget that generally online petitions seem to be signed by a small, non-random sample of people!
Perhaps a better way than the Council developing a petition site would be to use some of the existing sites like the Downing street E-petition site. I would welcome any other thoughts on this?
3 comments:
No - petitions get hijacked by all sorts inc Greens - they have some value in showing strength of feeling on an issue but not role of Council to do that - why do we elect councillors if not to act?
I think councils should embrace ePetitions. The examples in Bristol, Kingston upon thames and now South Yorkshire and positive evidence.
Implementing ePetitioning locally hits triggers within the new DCLG white paper too.
Check out the ePetition guide on www.iceleguides.org
Petitions can be hijacked but I think they have a place,
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