TUCKED away on page 23 of Saturday’s Advertiser was a Public Notice from the Borough Council. 
It was published in accordance with the Local Authorities (referendum)(petitions)(England) regulations 2011. 
I was in the public gallery during a council meeting when we were assured by a cabinet member that it wasn’t possible for the council to hold a referendum on parishing. 
We must hope that he was mistaken.
Section 4 is about the publication of the magic number for petitions. According to the notice this is five per cent of local government electors; in Swindon’s case 7,764 electors.
Most relevant is part 6 which states: Petitions for a referendum
6.(1) Subject to regulation 7, a local authority shall hold a referendum by virtue of this Part where they receive a valid petition (but shall not be required to hold such a referendum where they receive a petition which is not a valid petition).
(2) A petition may be presented to a local authority
(a)by properly addressing, pre-paying and posting it to any office of the authority; or
(b)by delivering it to any such office.
Anyone organising a petition would have to be careful to follow the regulations to the letter – we know how slippery the council is about petitions.
STEVE THOMPSON 
Norman Road, Swindon