Who you can and what you can complain about
You can complain about district councillors and parish and town councillors, and co-opted members. We can only consider complaints about individual councillors or members. We cannot consider complaints about the authority as a whole or about people employed by it.
Any complaint made in writing alleging that a member of a council has breached the Code of Conduct that is received by the Monitoring Officer will be acknowledged within 5 working days of receipt.
What you can complain about
You can complain about a Member failing to comply with any part of the Authority's Code of Conduct. This includes:
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Failing to act in a way consistent with the principles for public life: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership
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Failing to disclose interests
What cannot be investigated?
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An Act of Parliament has set out what can be investigated under this procedure. There are some complaints that cannot be investigated including:
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Complaints that are not in writing
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Incidents or actions that are not covered by the Code of Conduct
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Incidents that are about a fault in the way the authority has or has not done something
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Complaints about people employed by the authority
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Incidents that happened before a Member was elected, co-opted or appointed, or after they have stopped being a Member
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Complaints about the way in which the authority conducts and records its meetings
Will your name be released ?
If you want to keep your name and address confidential, please indicate this in the space provided in the complaint form, in which case we will not disclose your name and address to the Member against whom you made the complaint without your prior consent. Please note that the authority does not investigate anonymous complaints unless there is a clear public interest in doing so.
What information should you provide ?
It is important that you provide all the information you wish to have taken into account by the Monitoring Officer when they decide whether to take any action on your complaint. For example:
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Where possible you should be specific about exactly what you are alleging the Member said or did. For instance, instead of writing that the member insulted you, you should state what it was they said.
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Wherever possible you should provide the dates of the alleged incidents. If you cannot provide exact dates it is important to give a general timeframe
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You should confirm whether there are any witnesses to the alleged conduct and provide their names and contact details
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You should provide any relevant background information