The ancient right to seek justice directly from the Manx parliamant on Tynwald Day has this year seen nine people put forward petitions airing their grievances.

They include calls for equality in the provision of free nursery education and a change in the way water rates are calculated.

In time honoured fashion the petitions were handed to the clerk of Tynwald during the ceremony at St John's yesterday.

Among the causes seeking a parliamentary backer is a call by the Mothers Union for a free pre-school place to made available to every child, and a depositor in the collapsed KSF bank wants an international solution to refund all savers.

Rates figure prominently, with one petitioner wanting local authority rates to be replaced with a community charge and another wanting a review of the Island water rates system, and for the right of those living alone to have water meters installed.

The family court figures in threee petitions, with one questioning the fairness of the legal aid system and another claiming maladministration in a dispute about access to children.

A third seeks redress over a complaint about a decision made in the court, which has allegedly been ignored by the Department of Home Affairs for four years.

Another petitioner seeks to have planning applications reopened where cases have been based on what she calls 'flawed' evidence by planning officers.

The petitions will now go before a Tynwald committee, to check they are in order, then lie 'on the table' awaiting a sympathetic member to take up the cause.