Has anyone developed any policies for handling online petitions as reps?
In a traditional rep-petition we have been sent the text and a list
of names etc. which we can quantify and the case office can reflect in
their report. With an online petition the numbers signing it
constantly changes up to the report deadline (and beyond) and
certainly on change.org petitions
those signing it can also leave extra comments.
1) Should those be treated as additional reps and analysed/reported
as such?
The main issue being the time it would take to process these if the
petition with hundreds of extra comments is dropped on us just before
our cut-off point there is not the resources to analyse them.
Our current approach is that for committee items we have a cut-off of
non the working day before committee for items to be reflected at
committee via an update sheet. Anything received after that still has
to be analysed and taken into consideration before the decision is
issued in case anything material emerges, as we would feel open to JR
if we did not take them into account before releasing the decision.
2) Is there guidance we should issue to petition organisers around
timing, closing dates/deadlines, etc. We wouldn't want to be seen to
unduly limit the opportunity to comment.
Just as a footnote, I work in a CPA so large Minerals & Waste
applications can be in 'consultation' phase for months (or even
years), so we cannot treat the original consultation period on the
site notice as being a rigid limit.
