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MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL

STANDARDS COMMITTEE

6 APRIL 2011

REFERENCE FROM CABINET

1.           EXECUTIVE PROCEDURE RULES - PETITIONS

1.1       The Cabinet, at its meeting held on 09 March 2011, considered an oral report of the Head of Democratic Services seeking an amendment to the Executive Procedure Rules’ age restriction on submission of petitions to Cabinet.

1.2       At the meeting, the Cabinet agreed

1.   That the Council amend the Executive Procedure Rules relating to petitions so that there is no age limit on who can sign a petition or present a petition to the Cabinet or a Cabinet Member.

2.   That the Standards Committee evaluates the above recommendation and submits their comments to Council.

1.3       At the Council meeting on 22 September 2010, it was agreed that the Council’s Petition Scheme should be amended so that there was no age limit on who can sign the petition or present the petition to Council.  The amendment made by Council to the Council Procedure Rules did not change the rules for the presentation of petitions to Cabinet which was dealt with separately in the Constitution’s Executive Procedure Rules.  On being made aware of this anomaly the Cabinet determined to make the change in order to have consistency across the Council.

1.4       The Cabinet is recommending to Council that paragraph 2.6 (ii) of the Executive Procedure Rules should be amended from:

‘Only petitions containing signatures of 100 persons of voting age will be eligible for submission to the Cabinet or Cabinet Member but the Leader or the Cabinet Member may at his discretion waive this requirement….’

to:

‘Only petitions containing signatures of 100 persons will be eligible for submission to the Cabinet or Cabinet Member but the Leader or the Cabinet Member may at his discretion waive this requirement….’.

1.5       RECOMMENDED:   That the Standards Committee evaluate the proposed amendment to paragraph 2.6 (ii) of the Executive Procedure Rules.