City chief says petition plan means the end for culture of secrecy

CAMPAIGNERS will need as few as 250 signatures to ensure they get a hearing at the city council under a new petitions system.

Funding, local transport issues and the staging of events are likely to be at the heart of motions submitted for consideration later this year.

Petitions will also be considered if 20 traders and local businesses can group together to agree on a proposed policy.

City leader Andrew Burns said the new system was part of a raft of measures to make decision-making accessible for residents.

The Labour politician said local authority administrations have been “overly secretive” in the past and lacked dialogue with the public.

At the moment, only a handful of councils on the west coast of Scotland operate such a system. The Scottish Parliament operates something similar with its public petitions committee, although that only requires a single signature. At Westminster, a motion with 100,000 signatures is needed for a debate.

Traders and residents today welcomed the development.

Keith Hales, a barber shop owner and vice-chairman of the Leith Business Association, said: “I can think of a lot of issues I could get 20 businesses to sign up to, things that have taken a long time to be taken seriously.

“The council is opening up a whole can of worms. If the council has a process of recording the issues raised it