A PETITION which opposed a garden waste permit scheme in the Wee County was not included in council papers last week because the due process was not followed.

Around 1,200 people had signed the Stop Clackmannanshire Council From Charging For Brown Bin Collections petition on change.org before the details for the scheme were approved by elected members on Thursday, January 16.

At the meeting, the local authority's monitoring officer said the council had been aware of the petition since Monday that week.

She added advice had been given to the principal petitioner on the council's petitions policy, which highlights that individual signatories must live in the local area.

A common issue, addresses cannot be confirmed via the change.org website, the council chamber was told.

While the website does offer fields to fill out general address details, there appears to be no way to see what individuals put in and it is not clear how these would be validated.

Regardless, the petition was mentioned as a reason for opposition by Labour group members who eventually voted against.

During the meeting, Councillor Craig Holden highlighted the petition process was not followed, adding that if it was, it would have been discussed on the day.

When the Advertiser visited the council's portal, the same petition started by the same person as the one on change.org was listed, with the site saying it was created on Friday, January 10.

It had a single signatory in the principal petitioner and included a link to the original version on the third party website.

A petition to the council only requires 250 individual, confirmed signatories before it will be considered by elected members.

Council directions read: "Petitions which do not follow the guidelines will be rejected and you will be informed in writing of the reasons."

Visit clacks.gov.uk/council/publicpetitions/ for the complete guidance.

Petitions will be excluded if they "request the direct reversal of a decision/action approved by council in the last six months" – meaning it could be some time before a similar petition would be accepted at the local authority.