Let Surrey Residents make a difference, say Lib Dems

Surrey County Council is set to make decisions at its meeting on 15 June 2010 about new rules allowing Surrey residents to present petitions at meetings of the full Council and call for debates on them. These rule changes are needed for the Council to comply with new government legislation. The Liberal Democrats are calling for amendments to the new petition rules proposed by the Council to make it easier for Surrey residents to have their say and influence Council decisions.

Leader of the Lib Dem group Cllr Hazel Watson said: "The Conservative administration at County Hall is finally catching up with common practice in many other Councils by allowing Surrey residents to present petitions to full Council and to accept e-petitions. Previous requests by the Liberal Democrats to allow petitions to be presented to full Council, as recently as a few months ago, have been rejected as unnecessary by the Conservative administration. The difference now is that the Council is being forced by the Government to make it happen."

Cllr Watson added: "We are calling for changes to the proposed new petition rules because they are extremely restrictive. The Conservative administration is suggesting that members of the public collect a massive 20,000 signatures on a petition to allow a debate in full Council and a huge 10,000 signatures to call a senior officer to give evidence at a Select Committee. The requirement for such large numbers of signatures is unrealistic and unachievable. The rules should be changed to considerably reduce the number of signatures to 2,500 for a debate in full Council and 1,000 for a senior officer to give evidence at a Select Committee. Such changes are essential to give Surrey's residents a greater say about Council decisions."

"The Conservative administration claims to be trying to make the Council more open and transparent, but this new requirement for thousands of signatures on petitions is far from that, it is unachievable, restrictive and must be changed", she concluded.