Proposal to let residents petition for items on Calderdale Council agenda

Monday, 29 September 2014

Calderdale Liberal Democrats have put forward a motion to Calderdale Council to strengthen the power of petitions. They are proposing that any petition signed by 1,000 or more local residents is automatically placed on the agenda of the next full Council meeting to be debated by Councillors.

Councillor James Baker, Deputy leader of Calderdale Liberal Democrats, told the HebWeb, "On the doorstep I hear many people say that the Council does not listen to local people. We think that democracy in Calderdale is broken, and have come up with a series of proposals to fix it. Alongside returning to the traditional Committee system, and webcasting all meetings we are trying to give more power to the people.

"This proposal would give local people a direct influence over the agenda of topics debated by the Council, and make it harder for whoever is running the Council to ignore petitions. It can only help to improve our local democracy."

Liberal Democrat PPC for Calder Valley Alisdair Calder McGregor said, "This idea was thought up by one of our members at our local policy day and mirrors what has been done in parliament. As a democratic party our policy ideas are generated by our grass roots membership. As a party we are unique in offering local people the chance to see their ideas and polices being put into action."

The motion will be debated at the next full Council meeting on 2nd October. The meeting takes place at 6pm in Halifax Town Hall and is open for members of the public to attend.