Petitions
Section 7.3.10 of the Governance Rules 2020 provides details of the requirements of a petition. Petitions must adhere to the requirements or they may not be received by Council.
Requirements of a Petition
A petition will be presented at a Council meeting only if it meets all of the following requirements:
- The petition must be received from at least 12 persons, signed by those persons whose name and physical address also appears
- Although initial copies of petitions can be conveyed by email, the original document must be sighted and received by the Council in a hardcopy format.
- The petition must be legible and in permanent writing (i.e. no pencil).
- The petition must be in the English language, or accompanied by a translation, which will need to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer who will present it to be correct.
- The petition must be addressed to the Chief Executive Officer, the Mayor, or one or more Councillors containing a request for action to be taken by the Council.
- Each page of the petition must repeat the full wording of the petition as contained on the first page of the petition.
- Any signature appearing upon a page which does not bear the whole of the petition wording will not be considered by the Council.
- All signatures must be original signatures, not photocopied, scanned or faxed copies.
- The petition should not be indecent, abusive or objectionable in language or content.
- Every page of a petition, including signatories to the petition must be on an original piece of paper and not pasted, stapled, or otherwise affixed to any other piece of paper.
- The petition should not relate to a planning permit application
You can download Council's petition template(DOCX, 14KB) to prepare a petition.
Petitions should be forwarded by mail to Benalla Rural City Council, PO Box 227, Benalla Vic 3671 or delivered in person to the Customer Service Centre, 1 Bridge Street East, Benalla.