Parking Petition gets 5 Signatures!
18 June 2010 by Scunny Independent News
Some time ago I had a discussion with Mick Grant a local councillor about how accessible the democratic decision making process was to people like me.
I suggested that he use his blog to canvas opinion and not just tell us what he and his colleagues are doing, this he has taken on board to some extent. Mick responded by explaining how petitions and addresses can be made to council.
Links to Mick's posts on this are below
- http://mickgrant.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/120/
- http://mickgrant.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/the-future-of-blogging/
So I decided to carry out an experiment to see just what level of democratic involvement we could engage in.
I went through the process of creating an account on the web site, filling in the application form, getting the petition checked by the council and then finally having it published on the council's web site.
The petition has now sat there hidden away in a secluded backwater of the council's web site, and has attracted a rousing 5 signatures!
Was I surprised by this? No not at all, there are actually 4 more signatures than I expected on it.
What does this lack of response tell us? That people want car parking prices to increase and would be happy to pay them? Well that's one take the council could have on it.
But I don't think so...
The original article in the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph attracted 40 comments from readers and their online poll showed 84% of readers would be discouraged from using town centre car parks if the price was increased by 20pence.
What conclusion can we draw here? Well the conclusion I can draw is that people would rather rant on and talk nonsense anonymously on a web site than stand up, be counted and take action on a matter that affects them personally.
The second conclusion I've drawn is that while the mechanism exists to "petition" local government, as its annexed away in such a backwater of a huge site, that it gets very little coverage. In my opinion the council should do more to promote the views of its residents on its web site than it currently does, it could do this by rotating petitions on the home page.
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Comments
It must be attributed to readership and access. The Scunthorpe Telegraph website has a large readership, their polls refect on current news, sometime provocative to stir emotions and are plain to see and vote on. As is said in this article the poll on North Liconlshire Councils website is hidden away and no one would know about it unless they stumbled upon it.
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