PROCEDURES: PLANNING SERVICES

Anonymous tip-offs


Anonymous tip-offs are communications that allege wrongdoing and in which the complainant does not provide sufficient identification and contact details to enable the Council to contact them. Anonymous tip-offs will not normally be followed up. The Council may choose to act upon an anonymous tip-off if there is reason to believe both that the tip-off is genuine, and that the matter at stake is serious enough to warrant the use of resources that any investigation might require. Such an investigation would be subject to the normal prioritisation procedure applicable to that type of tip-off.

Petitions


Any person is entitled to petition the Planning Service on any matter for which the Service is responsible. The Planning Service will treat any petition received in the same way as a letter or email, and will respond to and enter into any further communication with the principal petitioner. No response will normally be sent to the other petitioners.
 
The principal petitioner will be the person identified on the petition as such, or otherwise the first clearly identifiable name and address upon the petition.
 
Names on petitions should if possible include an Isle of Wight address for each name. This may be checked against the electoral register to ensure the validity of the names and so petitioners would be advised to use the address at which they are registered on the electoral register.
 
If two or more identical or very similar letters are received on one specific issue, these will be treated in the same way as petitions. If the individual co-ordinating the letter writing can be identified, that person will be treated as the principal petitioner and the same procedures will apply as for petitions generally.
 



Page last updated on: 11/03/2004