Petitions

We welcome petitions, as they are an important way for residents to let us know about their concerns and participate in the democratic process.

Starting a petition

Before you start a petition, you should consider if it is the best way to resolve your issue or make your views known.

You could also:

write to the appropriate Director or Cabinet Member
contact your local Councillor
make a suggestion through our website
respond to consultations

If you are starting a petition, you should:

identify who is organising the petition
tell us which of our functions or powers the petition relates to
say what you want us to do

When asking people to sign your petition, they can be of any age. They need to provide their name, and an address or postcode that shows that they live, work or study in Chelmsford. We will not count any signatures that don’t provide this information.

Submitting a petition

You can send us a petition by post to:

Legal and Democratic Services Manager
Chelmsford City Council
Civic Centre
Duke Street
Chelmsford
CM1 1JE

We do not have an online petitions system. If you have created a petition online, you need to notify the Legal and Democratic Services Manager of its existence.

We can’t accept your petition if:

there is no clear petition organiser
it relates to something we are not directly responsible for (such as roads, schools or libraries)
it relates to a planning decision
it relates to a licensing application
it is vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate

After submitting your petition

We will send an acknowledgement to the petition organiser within 10 working days.

This will include details of how we will deal with the petition under our Petitions Scheme (which also includes a template you can use).

Depending on what the petition asked for and how many people signed it, we can:

take the action the petition is asking for
consider the petition at Full Council (if it has more than 2,000 signatures)
hold an inquiry into the matter
carry out research into the matter
hold a public meeting

Current petitions

We are not currently considering any petitions.