09 February 2012Local Code of Conduct and Complaints against Councillors
From 8 May 2008, the responsibility for considering initial complaints that a Councillor (Member) may have breached the Code of Conduct moved from Standards for England to the standards committees of local authorities.
Standards for England produces a Code of Conduct Guide for Members.
How to make a complaint
If you wish to complain about the conduct of a Member of the Sevenoaks District Council or a Member of one of the town or parish councils within the District, you may write a letter or an e-mail to the District Council's Monitoring Officer or complete a Member Code of Conduct Complaints Form (
Wordpad Document 106KB file details) (Member Code of Conduct Complaints Form (
PDF File 87KB file details)). It may be useful to complete the Member Code of Conduct Complaints Form as these may be processed faster. Please send your complaint to:
members.conduct@sevenoaks.gov.uk
or
The Monitoring Officer
c/o The Standards Committee Assessment Panel
Sevenoaks District Council
Argyle Road
Sevenoaks
Kent
TN13 1HG
What is a complaint?
It is the responsibility of the Standards Committee Assessment Sub-Committee to review initial allegations of Member misconduct. The Assessment Sub-Committee can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a Member. It will not deal with complaints about things that are not covered by the Members' Code of Conduct (please select the 'Constitution' in from the 'Folders' list on the left-hand side of the page then select select Appendix Q from the documents table). If you make a complaint to the Standards Committee it must be about why you think a Member has not followed the Code of Conduct. If you wish to make a complaint about something else not related to Member conduct, please contact the Council's Complaints Co-ordinator using the Complaints Procedure.
The procedure for investigating complaints
The procedure for investigating allegations of Member misconduct is outlined in the Council's Constitution (please select the 'Code of Conduct from the 'Folders' list on the left-hand side of the page, then select appendices S, T, U and V from the documents table). The District Council's Standards Committee has also set out Local Assessment Guidance ( PDF File 30KB file details) which will be taken into consideration when reviewing allegations of misconduct.
If you have any questions about the Code of Conduct or submitting a complaint, please contact the District Council's Monitoring Officer, Christine Nuttall, at members.conduct@sevenoaks.gov.uk or 01732 227180.
