Asylum seeker housing petition only one to top 3,000-signature threshold for debate by Dudley Council in 2025
Dudley people can have their say in a number of ways including starting an online e-petition on the council’s website.
Anyone can start a petition and if more than 3,000 people sign it the subject qualifies for a debate by full council.
There were four e-petitions hosted on the authority’s website in 2025 covering a variety of subjects.
The most successful was started by Reform UK politician Marco Longhi on the subject of housing asylum seekers and illegal migrants in the borough.
The petition, which opened in August and closed in October and got 3,086 signatures, said ‘borough residents were deeply concerned about the effects that the increased presence of illegal immigrants/asylum seekers is having’.
The petition went on to call for the council to consider injunctions against hotels housing illegal immigrants and asylum seekers and use fear of crime as a planning consideration to block house of multiple occupation planning applications.
The petition was debated by the council on October 20 where a crowded public gallery applauded criticism of councillors’ attacks on Mr Longhi.
The next best performing petition was active in July when 824 people signed a petition entitled Save Clockfields Millennium Forest and SLINC (Site of Local Importance to Nature Conservation).
The petition called for refusal of a planning application for three houses on a site in Culverhouse Drive Brierley Hill.
The petition says the application, which had yet to be decided by council planners, attracted 300 objections and the site is an essential wildlife corridor.
A petition called Save Enville Street Car Park collected 236 signatures from people supporting its aim of removing the publicly-owned site in Stourbridge from the council’s list of land to be disposed of and instead be upgraded with resurfacing work.
The petition argues: “If this asset is sold off it will make existing parking issues in the area worse and negatively impact on local businesses.”
A response from the council to the petion is currenlty pending.
The final petition registered on the council’s website was active from April 2 to July 2 and demanded the council allocated funding for road maintenance in Halesowen.
The petition attracted two signatures which was not enough to warrant an official response from the council.
