Those signing petitions aimed at the council no longer have to be 18-plus, under draft changes to the council's meeting procedure laws approved this week.

Deputy mayor Kat Bennett said she was motivated to push for the change after under-18 mountain bike riders' signatures to a petition on changes to the city's hills were unable to be accepted.

But councillor Libby Hall said a signatory "needs to be old enough to make an informed decision".

"Having no limit allows for possible abuse of petitions being accepted by council, who's to say a five year-old doesn't sign a petition on the persuasion of an older person," Cr Hall said.

"The child only has to mark the signature area and it would be accepted.

"I don't believe this is acceptable and I think most in the community would question this as well."

Councillor Danny Lowe said some children and youths had more maturity and were more informed than adults, but council would still have to assess the merit of the petitioners.

"It's your choice whether to take a signature from a five year-old, a 10 year-old, 15 year-old or a 30 or 35 year-old," Cr Lowe said.

"There's no legal standing on how much weight you should apply to a petition when making your own informed decision."

The other contentious area of the 5-2 approved draft laws, which are now open for feedback, centred on whether a council meeting chair, typically the mayor, should be allowed to debate issues without vacating that post.

Councillor Ron Mildren and Cr Hall, who opposed the changes, argued against a chair being able to speak on a motion.

"Frankly I think this is a breach of the impartiality principle," Cr Mildren said after Cr Hall said it was open to abuse.

Mayor Anna Speedie rejected those views.

"How many times have we sat here and councillors, each of you, have bashed the drum of transparency, 'more transparency, everyone should be able to have a say and say what they think'," Cr Speedie said.

"Yet you actually want to silence one voice.

"I really struggle with that notion and in terms of impartiality I think that you can't make rules for when things absolutely go horribly wrong."