06 January 2009Local Code of Conduct and Complaints against Councillors
From 8th May 2008 the responsibility for considering initial complaints that a Councillor (Member) may have breached the Code of Conduct moved from the Standards Board for England to the standards committees of local authorities.
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/email to the District Council's Monitoring Officer or complete a Member Code of Conduct Complaints Form (
Wordpad Document 107KB file details) (Member Code of Conduct Complaints Form (
PDF File 82KB 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 Assessment Panel to review initial allegations of Member misconduct. The Assessment Panel 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 (Appendix Q of the Council's Constitution). If you make a complaint to the Assessment Panel 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 District Council's Constitution (particularly appendices S, T, U and V). The District Council's Standards Committee has also set out Local Assessement 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 227 180.
