How To Complain About Your Councillor
How Will My Complaint Be Dealt With?
In the first instance, your complaint will be considered by the Monitoring Officer. If possible and appropriate the complaint will be resolved by the Montoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer will investigate your complaint and will seek to resolve it informally – for example, by advising the councillor concerned about their future conduct or by seeking an apology.
If you do not agree to the Monitoring Officer’s proposal for the resolution of your complaint, or if the Monitoring Officer does not consider it appropriate to deal with your complaint herself (for example, because of its sensitivity or possible seriousness), your complaint will be referred to the Council’s Assessment Panel. This comprises 2 members of the Standards Committee, plus an independent person, who is not a councillor.
The Assessment Panel can decide to do one of the following:
- to refer your complaint to the Council’s Monitoring Officer for formal investigation.
- to refer your complaint to theCouncil’s Monitoring Officer for informal resolution.
- to take no action in respect of your complaint.
The Assessment Panel will use the Standards Committee assessment criteria to assess your complaint and decide what action to take. You can view the criteria using the link below:
For further information about the initial assessment process, please refer to the following policies:
The Policy re Anonymous Complaints