You can raise or support a petition if you live, work or study in Bolton.

Paper petitions

Paper petitions can be handed to the Mayor at any council meeting.  The relevant executive cabinet member will receive a report if there are 100 or more signatures. 

If your petition contains 2,500 or more signatures it will normally be debated by the council if deemed appropriate.

The Borough Solicitor is authorised to reject petitions which she considers to be vexatious, abusive, inappropriate or exempted under the petition scheme.

E-petitions

E-petitions must follow the same guidelines as paper petitions. The petition organiser will need to provide us with their name, postal address and e-mail address.  Most petitions run for six months, but you can choose a shorter or longer time frame (up to a maximum of one year).

Create or support a petition

E-petition process

When you create an e-petition it may take a number of days before it appears on the website. This is because we must check that the contents of the petition are suitable before it is made available for signatures. 

If we feel we cannot publish your petition, we will contact you to explain why. You will then be able to change and re-submit your petition if you wish. If you do not do this within 14 working days, a summary of the petition and the reasons why it was not accepted will be published on the e-petition website.

When an e-petition has closed for signatures you will receive an acknowledgement within five working days. Your petition will then be dealt with by the council in the same way as a paper petition.