Petitions are presented at Ordinary Council Meetings. Find out more about petitions and how to submit a petition below.
About Petitions
Petitions are one way you can express your views on a topic and place community concerns before Council, however they must be on a matter on which the Council has the power to act.
Generally, there is a lead petitioner who starts and leads the petition process. The lead petitioner is the person who we will communicate with in regards to the progress of the petition.
How to Submit a Petition
To start a petition, download the
Petition to the City of Melville Form.
The original hard-copy petition must be forwarded to the City. You can
send it by mail or hand deliver it to our Civic Centre.
Please take care in how you word the petition as we require it to be in a certain form, and include certain information in order for it to be valid.
Guidance on Submitting a Petition
In order for a petition to be valid it must:
- be addressed to Council;
- be in a form approved by the Council (the Petition to the City of Melville Form);
- be made by electors of the district;
- state the request on each page of the petition;
- contain the name, address and signature of each elector making the request, and the date each elector signed;
- contain a summary of the reasons for the request;
- state the name of the person to whom, and an address at which, notice to the petitioners can be given; and
- be respectful and temperate in its language.
Signatures must:
- be written on a page bearing the terms of the petition, or the action requested by the petition.
- be made by the person signing in his or her own handwriting.
Signatures must not be copied, pasted or transferred on to the petition or placed on a blank page on the reverse of a sheet containing the subject of the petition.
Although non-electors can sign a petition, only electors will be recorded in the official signature count. An elector is a person who owns or occupies rateable property in the City and is eligible to vote in local and state government elections.
Download a copy of these guidelines in PDF format Privacy and Confidentiality
When you create a petition you collect personal information (names, addresses and signatures) about people living in the City. As a result, you have certain responsibilities in regards to how you deal with their personal information. You should not use their data for any purposes other than the petition, unless they have given consent. You should also take due care to keep the petition in a safe place so others cannot access the information.
You should also inform petitioners that petitions (which includes their personal information) is circulated to Elected Members and staff at the City. They are also considered a record and are kept in our records keeping system and may be subject to Freedom of Information requests.