The petitioning period for the House of Lords continues until Monday 18th April, at 5pm. We’ve updated our petitioning guide, and the House of Lords petitioning guide has more information as well.
Past experience with HS1 shows you are more likely to get something out of a committee of Lords than MPs. (The Commons Committee even suggested some petitioners take their case to the Lords.) The really important thing is that we hope the Lords will actually order HS2 to do things opposed to just recommend them, a key failing of the Commons Committee.
Whilst you have to pay £20 even if you did petition the Commons, the Lords have not only heard of this new-fangled thing called ‘the post’, but more remarkably this veritably futuristic interweb thing! Yes, instead physically having to turn up with four copies of ‘sheweths’, you can actually deposit your petition by email. If you do email it, you still have to send a copy by post and your £20, but that can be after the deadline for submitting petitions. HOWEVER, email versions must include a PDF copy of your signed petition, so please make sure you can actually do this before you decide this is what you intend to do, as other scanned image files will not be accepted.
We have inquired with the Lords Private Bill Office and they will also accept faxes of petitions. The fax number is 020 7219 2571, but they have asked that you ring before faxing as they might not be in the office where the machine is. The phone number is 020 7219 2468.
The period open to submit petitions will be 24th March to 5pm on Monday 18th April. The official Lords guide to petitioning is here http://www.parliament.uk/
(On Wednesday 13 April 2016 petitions may be deposited in person until 21:00.)
I wonder if this would interest STOP HS2 supporters. It’s what Aylesbury LibDem Councillor Steven Lambert had to say about David Lidington MP on Facebook on 31 March 2016: ·
“…When he appeared in front of the Select Committee (after his office called me the day before and asked me what he should say!!), he spent less than 5 mins talking about Aylesbury’s mitigation needs. FIVE MINS! for 60k + residents!…”