Petitions and e petitions

On this page you’ll be able to complete a one-time registration for our e-petition scheme. Once registered, you’ll be able to sign current petitions. You can also view past petitions, find out how to set up and submit your own, and receive updates.

Petitions are a way to ask us to do or not do something the council or one of our local partners is responsible for. We can also consider making representations on behalf of the community to organisations not under our control (for example: a local railway or a hospital etc.)

If your petition is about something a different council is responsible for, we can advise on the best way to respond to it.

Petitions can inform decisions and lead to change.

We accept two types of petition (or a combination of both):

• paper – signatures are collected on pieces of paper.
• electronic or e-petitions – names are collected online through a website.

Petitions aren’t the only way to resolve issues or to make your views known. You could also:

• contact the relevant service or officer directly.
• contact your local ward councillor
• contact the relevant executive member
• ask a scrutiny committee to look into the matter
• make a complaint to the council

Full details of the scheme can be found in our documents below

Before setting up a petition, you must make sure that it meets our criteria.

Your petition should:

• give a clear, short statement saying what it’s about and what you’d like the council to do about it.
• include the full name and address of the petition organiser.

Petitions can only be started and signed by people living, working or studying in the area.

To set up an e-petition you’ll need to register with our e-petition system. Registering is really easy and you’ll only have to do it once. Your petition will be made available online to a much wider audience and you’ll receive updates. These may include the results of consultations and petitions as well as minutes of council meetings etc.

Access the council’s e-petition system to set up an electronic version or print out our paper petition template

Completed paper petitions can be handed in, posted or given to your local ward councillor. They should be addressed to:

Democratic services, Portsmouth City Council, Civic offices, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, PO1 2AL

E-petitions are submitted online. Log-in or complete a one-time registration for our e-petition system.

To see what happens to your petition after you submit it, read the petition scheme flowchart.

There are five main reasons why we’d reject a petition:

• a petition or statutory consultation about the same thing already exists.
• the petition relates to a planning matter.
• the petition relates to a licensing matter.
• the petition is about something for which there is already a way to appeal, such as council tax banding or education appeals.
• the petition is abusive or set up to cause confusion or annoyance.

In the period immediately before an election we may need to deal with your petition differently. If this is the case we will write to you to explain the reasons and inform you of the revised timescale.

Paper petitions – simply add your name, signature and full address to the petition.

E-petitions – register or log-in to our e-petition system, choose the petition you want to sign from the list. Add your name, your post code and an email address so that we can send you a verification link.

For both types of petition, signatures can only be counted if we can verify them either with a full name (forename & surname) and full address with a post code (and a valid email address for e-petitions only).

Signing a paper petition requires us to be able to identify you with your name and full address. Signing with just your signature may not allow us to identify you, meaning that your name won’t be counted towards to the total support of a petition.

Duplicate signatories will be deleted from the total.

Register or log in to our e-petition system to view current petitions or go our library page to look at closed petitions.

• Verification number for petitions regarding constitutional change