EPetitioning

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E-Petitioning

• Online petitioning services
• Bristol City Council
• www.bristol-city.gov.uk/epetitions
• Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
• epetitions.kingston.gov.uk

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Petitioning in local authorities

• Petitioning is an existing democratic process
• Each council may have slightly different rules
  and processes for petitioning
• Members of the public can present petitions in
  public meetings or send direct to departments
• Councillors often present on their behalf
• Hard for people who have signed a petition to get
  feedback on its progress

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What are e-Petitions?

• Way for people to gather support for issues
  online
• Comes with discussion forum for each online
  petition
• Petitioner encouraged to provide background
  information, photos, links
• Council promotes service in general, petitioners
  promote their issues
• People are able to start, join and comment on
  online petitions through councils websites
• Also creates a central space for all petition
  details
• Encourages feedback

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Epetitioning project aims

• To define e-petitioning processes to stimulate
  active citizen participation in local
  communities
• To strengthen and enhance transparency and
  accessibility of petitioning through formalising
  the local petitioning process,
• To trace the path of e-petitions through the
  structures of the council and assess whether and
  how input by the public via e-petitioning impacts
  on decision-making at different levels.

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Trial activities

• Bristol and Kingston introduced e-petitioning
  systems in September 2004
• With International Teledemocracy Centre who run
  online petition service for Scottish Parliament
• Reviewing petitioning rules and publishing
  guidance
• Centralised point for all known petitions
• Promoting petitioning service to Councillors,
  council officers, community groups, general
  public
• Evaluation of service by ITC

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Who manages epetitioning?

• In Bristol the consultation team
• Have experience in discussion facilitation
• Have analysis skills
• In Kingston the democratic services team
• Direct links with committee meetings
• Responsible for receiving and monitoring
  petitions
• ..or it could be managed by scrutiny for example
• NB generally less than a days work a week

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Setting the scene in Bristol

• Most petitions submitted at council meetings
• Majority by councillors often on behalf of
  their constituents
• Limited guidance was available mainly about
  constitutional rules
• Only one department had system to monitor all
  petitions received response within 15 days
  included exec member sign-off
• Other departments no known form of tracking

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Experience in Bristol

• From September 04 to Jan 06
• Received 28 epetitions
• 192 discussion comments
• 9590 epetition signatures
• Success of epetition mainly depends on petitioner
• Many petitioners who have used service have said
  they would not have raised paper petitions
• Councillor support of petitions is visible
• Improving tracking and updating process
• Customer excellence standards being agreed upon
  for responding to petitions

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How does it work?

• The petitioner is responsible for
• Providing background information
• Initiating the discussion (although not
  essential)
• Drumming up support for issue
• Submitting petition to the council

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We support by

• Providing help about how to publicise
• Give guidance on how to submit
• Make contact with ward councillors where required
• Ask for feedback/progress reports for all
  petitions
• Moderate discussions
• Write reports to be submitted with list of
  signatures

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Report includes analysis of discussions

• For example
• There were 32 comments made on the site. All
  were supportive of the e-petition and of
  recycling in general and many offered suggestions
  for improvement of the councils recycling
  service.
•  
• In particular, many people requested that
  cardboard, garden waste and composting material
  be collected..

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a breakdown of where people have signed from

• For example
• A total of 4687 signatories signed this
  e-petition 4411 of which were within the Bristol
  area. The distribution of the petitioners by area
  is
•  Ashley - 368
• Avonmouth - 29
• Bedminster - 307
• Bishopston - 404
• Bishopsworth - 25.

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..and a degree of confidence that the signatures
are valid

• For example
• The petition had 4 invalid signatures which were
  all duplicates. Some IP addresses had multiple
  duplications but it was found that these came
  from Bristol businesses who had just one IP
  address for their whole company who are located
  close to the Prince Street Bridge who would be
  affected by the petitions request. It was
  therefore felt that duplicate IP addresses were
  acceptable.

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Profile of Bristols users

• 10 under 25, 68 aged 25-50, 19 over 50
• 88 White, 4 BME
• 3 stated they had a disability
• 43 male, 53 female
• 40 home user, 54 work
• 65 first time e-petitioners
• 9 first time petitioners

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Signatures per issue
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Comments per issue
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What difference has it made?

• Starting to gather feedback for online
  publication to show responsiveness of council
• Some e-petitioners wouldnt have raised the issue
  through traditional means
• No discernible difference in quantity of
  petitions received
• Feedback from officers and councillors generally
  positive
• Early warning of imminent issues prompts review
  and occasional change in plans

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What do citizens think?

• I feel it is really important a way of
  furthering the inclusivity etc etc of the
  council. It is not just disinterested or
  disadvantaged people who cannot get involved in
  local issues, but busy people who have trouble
  doing much else other than work and bath the kids
  before 8pm the Internet is my saviour
• I congratulate the Council on being one of only
  2 local authorities in the country providing the
  facility to set up online petitions. The
  technology is easy to use and support I received
  from council officers in the e-democracy team was
  first class."

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Benefits

• Public and central focus for all petitions
• Allows greater transparency in decision-making
• Encourages debate including opposition to a
  petition or conditional support
• E-petitions can run alongside paper petitions but
  give greater visibility
• Review and improve council processes
• Engages different sections of the community

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Next steps

• How to guidance on epetitioning and case
  studies available at www.e-democracy.gov.uk
• Network of users to be established
• Can produce own system in-house or purchase
  software
• ITC has redeveloped epetitioner software to be
  locally focussed with administrator access
• Offering one-off licence fee and technical
  support to local authorities
• Other software solutions being developed

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Contact details

• Carol Hayward, Bristol City Council
• Tel [phone]
• Email carol_hayward_at_bristol-city.gov.uk
• www.bristol-city.gov.uk/epetitions
• www.bristol-city.gov.uk/edemocracy