Winners and losers on the campaign trail

While not every petition is a success, are there enough victories to suggest they are an effective means of getting politicians not just to listen but to act?

The evidence so far as Kent County Council’s track record is concerned, is mixed.

Changes by KCC to the popular Freedom Pass, its subsidised travel scheme for 11-16 year-olds, have been challenged several times via e-petitions. Last year, more than 3,000 people urged KCC to reconsider an increase in the charge to £270.

Petition organisers got the chance to ask for a re-think at a backbench committee meeting but the council eventually decided to stick by the increase.

There was more success for campaigners calling on KCC to reconsider its policy on turning streetlights off at night.

Tina Brooker collected 11,000 signatories on her petition. When she first presented her case before county councillors in 2015, her call was rejected.

Despite this, the authority eventually ended up doing a U-turn.

Nationally, campaigners demanding an end to the tax imposed on sanitary products - the so-called tampon tax - won a concession from the then Chancellor George Osborne after 320,000 people signed a petition.

But it is worth noting that none of the top 10 petitions on Parliament’s e-petition website secured any change of policy by the government.