Newark and Sherwood District Council accused of making it more difficult for members of the public to have their petitions debated

Newark and Sherwood District Council has been accused of making it more difficult for members of the public to have their petitions debated.

Paul Baggaley, secretary of Newark Sports Association, voiced concerns over a rise in the threshold of signatures needed to debate a petition at a meeting of the full council.

Councillors unanimously voted to raise the number of signatures to trigger a debate from 500 to 1,000. This was in response to a change in the Localism Act 2011, which announced local authorities no longer had the obligation to provide a statutory petitions scheme.