Medway Council to accept Change.org petitions from August under revised scheme

Medway Council’s Full Council on Thursday 23 April 2026 moved a revised Petitions Scheme forward to its July meeting for formal approval. New rules take effect from 1 August 2026. The proposals, considered as Item 15, represent the first major shake-up of the Council’s petition rules since the original scheme was adopted on 25 November 2010.

What changes for the public

Change.org petitions are coming in from the cold.

The council will now accept e-petitions hosted on third-party websites — the biggest single change in the package. Since Full Council resolved in April 2018 to only accept petitions that included a valid email address and postal address for every signatory, the council has refused all third-party petitions. Those platforms didn’t carry that detail.

Under the revised scheme, third-party petitions get the green light provided basic validation requirements are met. Officers cited Change.org’s own verification measures: every signatory must confirm their email, duplicate signatures from the same device or IP are blocked, and accounts are required to start a petition. The council’s own in-house e-petition platform continues unchanged.

Other changes include:

• The lead petitioner must now be a Medway resident. Signatories can still come from anywhere.
• Petitions must request action within the Council’s remit — aligning petitions with the existing rules on Full Council motions.
• A minimum of two signatures is required to validate a petition. Petitions with one or no signatures will be treated as a letter to the Council.
• The Council is promoting a standard petition template for paper petitions to make it easier for organisers to meet the scheme’s criteria first time.
• The scheme has been rewritten for ease of use and accessibility, and Democratic Services will work with the Communications Team to publicise it.

What doesn’t change

The two key signature thresholds stay put: 5 per cent of Medway’s adult population for a petition to be debated at Full Council, and 2 per cent for Overview and Scrutiny. Members of the Business Support and Digital Overview and Scrutiny Committee queried on 26 March 2026 whether those bars were too high — a committee member noted that only petitions attracting national attention tend to clear them — but asked Cabinet to review the thresholds a year after the new scheme is in force rather than cut them now.

The security debate

Councillors on the scrutiny committee also pushed for beefed-up security on the council’s own e-petition system. Specifically, whether a captcha could be added to protect against AI-generated or spoof signatures. The Head of Democratic Services told members that the existing email and postal-address requirement already provides meaningful protection — and said officers would raise the captcha idea with the council’s software supplier. Full Council’s recommendation formally asked officers to consider that before the new scheme goes live.

The scheme-review report also flagged a political risk raised during scrutiny: that opening the door to third-party platforms could expose the council to “frivolous national and international talking points” rather than local issues. Another member welcomed the change and said she’d previously helped residents organise a petition that was refused under the current rules.

What happens next

Under paragraph 16.2 of the Council’s Council Rules, once recommendations on changes to the Constitution are moved and seconded at Full Council they’re carried forward without discussion to the next ordinary meeting. That means the revised Petitions Scheme will be debated and formally decided at the July 2026 Full Council meeting, with the new rules due to take effect from 1 August 2026 if approved.

The Cabinet backed the revised scheme on 7 April 2026 subject to the security review. The report was authored by Wayne Hemingway, Head of Democratic Services, and Steve Dickens, Democratic Services Officer. Portfolio Holder is Councillor Vince Maple, Leader of the Council.

Source post on X — @medway_council, Full Council Item 15