Once the council has received a petition it will assign it to a responding officer, who will take responsibility to investigate the issue and will advise on the action to be taken by the council. The name of the responding officer will be given to the petitions organiser at the time of the acknowledgment.

An acknowledgement will be sent to the petition organiser within 10 working days of receiving a valid petition. It will let you know what we plan to do with the petition and when you can expect to hear from us again.

If we can do what your petition asks for, the acknowledgement may confirm that we have taken the action requested and the petition will be closed. If the petition has enough signatures to trigger a council debate, or a senior officer giving evidence, then the acknowledgment will confirm this and tell you when and where the meeting will take place.

If the petition needs more investigation, we will tell you the steps we plan to take. If the petition applies to a planning or licensing application, is a statutory petition on a matter where there is already an existing right of appeal, such as council tax banding and non-domestic rates, other procedures apply. In our acknowledgement to you, we will explain these procedures and how you can express your views.

Our response to a petition will depend on what a petition asks for, but may include one or more of the following:

• Taking the action requested in the petition.
• Considering the petition at a council meeting.
• Referring the issue to your local ward councillors.
• Referring the issue to the council's Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
  • Overview & Scrutiny Committee is an important and specialist role for all councillors who are not part of the Cabinet arrangements. Overview and scrutiny provides processes which enable them to review and challenge decisions, policies and services, inform decision making and offer recommendations for the Cabinet and other agencies to consider.
• Referring the issue to the council's Cabinet.
  • Cabinet is the executive decision-making body within the council's structures, which is chaired by the Leader of the Council and is responsible for taking the most of the day to day decisions with agreed budgets and policies.
• Referring to an area committee.
  • Area committees are made up of ward councillors and partner agencies that provide the residents of Kirklees with the opportunity to make a contribution on issues which affect their local community.
• Referring the issue to another relevant committee.
• Holding an inquiry.
• Commissioning relevant research.
• Organising a public meeting.
• Mounting a wider public consultation.
• Meeting with the petition organiser or representatives of signatories.
• Providing a written response outlining the council's views on the subject.
• Consulting statutory partners and local service providers.
• Instigating discussions with the voluntary and community sectors.
• Make representations to commercial or other interests.

Our response will be guided by what is most appropriate for the issue. If a decision is required, then we will seek to refer the issue to whatever body is best placed to make it. For example, certain decisions can only be taken by Cabinet; others might require a decision of the Full Council; other issues are best resolved more locally and may be best dealt with at, for example, an area committee.

If the concern is a local, ward-based issue, then the presumption will be to refer the matter to your local councillors to take up on your behalf. As a matter of course, local councillors will be formally notified of all valid petitions which relate to their constituents.

We publish details of petitions received and the final response or outcome of the petition on the council's website.

• Petitions received by the council

If a petition contains more than 5000 signatures it will be debated by the Full Council unless it is a petition asking for a senior council officer to give evidence at a public meeting, or is resolved before the meeting to the petition organiser's satisfaction. This means that the issue raised in the petition will be discussed at a meeting which all councillors can attend. The petition organiser will be given five minutes to present the petition at the meeting and the petition will then be discussed by councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes. The council will decide how to respond to the petition at this meeting. They may decide to take the action the petition requests (if it is within their power to do so), not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate, or to commission further investigation into the matter, for example by a relevant service. The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of this decision. This confirmation will also be published on our website.

• Petitions received by the council

Your petition may ask for a senior council officer to give evidence at a public meeting about something for which the officer is responsible as part of their job. For example, your petition may ask a senior council officer to explain progress on an issue, or to explain the advice given to elected Councillors to enable them to make a particular decision.

If your petition contains at least 2000 signatures, the relevant senior officer will give evidence at a public meeting of the council's Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee or panel. The senior staff that can be called to give evidence are members of the council's Directors Group.

• Directors and assistant directors

You should be aware that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee may decide that it would be more appropriate for another officer to give evidence instead of any officer named in the petition - for instance if it falls in another officers area of responsibility. Committee members will ask the questions at this meeting, but you will be able to suggest questions to the chair of the committee by contacting Laura Ellis, Senior Scrutiny Officer up to three working days before the meeting:

• Tel: 01484 221916
  Email: laura.ellis@kirklees.gov.uk

Where possible the Cabinet member with the relevant portfolio responsibility will also be invited to attend.

There will be issues that are very local to a particular area, ward or neighbourhood of Kirklees and in these circumstances it would be appropriate for the issue to be submitted to an area committee.

• Area committees

Once submitted, the members of the committee will decide what the best way to approach the issue is. There are a number of options open to the area committee, one of which will be to trigger the petitions process.