The Governance Committee of Lewisham Council was scheduled to meet on 8 July 2025 to discuss updates to the council's petition scheme and the use of substitutes on council committees. The agenda for the meeting also included the minutes from a previous meeting, declarations of interest, and a verbal update on the future work programme.

Petition Scheme

The committee was asked to consider proposed amendments to the council's Petition Scheme, and to endorse the revised scheme for approval and adoption at the council meeting on 16 July 2025.

The proposed changes would allow e-petitions to be submitted via Change.Org in addition to the council's website. According to the Petition Scheme, for e-petitions submitted via Change.Org to be considered valid, petitioners would need to:

• Use their real name
• Include a valid postcode within the London Borough of Lewisham
• Have a verified signature

The report pack notes that the council had received a significant petition via Change.Org that would trigger a debate at full council if it were considered valid. The Director of Law & Corporate Governance (Monitoring Officer), Jeremy Chambers, was scheduled to prepare a report for the council meeting on 16 July, asking the council to allow a debate on the petition.

Use of Substitutes

The committee was also scheduled to discuss the use of substitutes on council committees. It was asked to recommend that previous temporary arrangements, considered by the Governance Committee on 18 December 2024 and approved by the council on 22 January 2025, be included in the Committee Procedure Rules under Part 4 of the new constitution.

The temporary arrangements allowed substitutes to be used at the following committees:

• All Planning Committees
• All Licensing Sub-committees
• Governance Committee
• Standards Committee
• Overview & Scrutiny Committee and all Select-Committees
• Appointments Committee
• Council Urgency Committee
• Works Council

Substitutes were not permitted at the Pensions Board or Cabinet.

According to the Constitution: Use of Substitutes report, the following rules would be in place regarding the use of substitutes:

• For each committee, a maximum of two substitute members for each group would be notified in writing to the Proper Officer from time to time.
• Substitute members would be permitted to take the place of an ordinary member from the respective group on the Committee where that member would be absent for the whole of the meeting.
• The political group that wishes to appoint a substitute member would need to notify the Monitoring Officer in writing, by 5pm on the date of the relevant committee meeting of the intended substitution.
• Any nominated substitute would have undertaken appropriate training relevant to the committee in question.

The report notes that there have been several occasions where formal meetings have needed to be rescheduled or cancelled due to being inquorate, and that the current constitutional provisions do not allow sufficient flexibility.

Declaration of Interests

Councillors were asked to declare any interests they had in any item on the agenda, according to the Declaration of Interests document.