Signing this doesn't make it happen. It makes them answer.
That is the honest version and it is the whole reason this page reads the way it does. Below: exactly what your signature triggers, exactly who decides afterwards, and exactly what happens to your name and address.
Left to sign — replace this with your own deadline
At the threshold — The clerk has to put it on an agenda. That is a debate being scheduled, not a decision being made
Who decides afterwards — The committee, by vote, in public. Not the petitioners, and not whoever started this
What can be promised — That the total is delivered, on time, whatever the number turns out to be
What nobody can promise — The outcome. A petition that promises you one is telling you something it cannot know
If it is refused — You are told why in writing, and that letter goes on this page unedited
What appears in public — Usually the name and the first part of the postcode. Assume that anything you type could be read by anybody
What is never shown — Your email and your phone number. They are used once, to tell you what happened, and then not again
Who else gets it — Nobody. It is not sold, not passed to a party, and not used to build a mailing list of any kind
After the deadline — Contact details are deleted within thirty days. The signature list itself has to be kept, because it is the evidence
Taking your name off — Ask at any point before the deadline. It comes off the same day and no reason is needed
The meeting is public — Both sides speak and anybody can register to. It is not a hearing arranged for one of them
You can start your own — The threshold is the same threshold. Nobody has an advantage here except in how many people they persuade
Objections get published too — Or linked to, in full, once they are. A one-sided page is a weaker argument rather than a stronger one
What won't happen here — An argument in a comment box. There is a room for that and it has a date
What to do after you sign
One email
Two sentences to your own representative moves more than a hundred extra signatures do. There is a suggested opening under the form.
The meeting
Turn up. Rooms with people in them get reported differently to rooms without, and that is simply true.
Two people you know
Sending this to two people you actually know beats posting it to two hundred who don't know you.
The consultation
Separate from this petition, open to everybody, and closing on a different date. Both are worth ten minutes.
Your local paper
A named reporter, one paragraph, and the deadline. Local papers cover petitions that arrive with a date attached.
Check back here
The result and the letter go on this page. Nothing gets quietly dropped if the answer turns out to be no.
Who counts it — A person, named here, rather than a script nobody has looked at
Duplicates — Taken out before the total is published, which is why a published number sometimes goes down
The final total — Goes to the recipient whether it is a good number or an embarrassing one
If it falls short — That is said here, in the same words, on the same day it is known
Sign it
Live preview — every color, word and block is editable after you pick it.