Councillor Complaints
If you are concerned about the conduct of Ashford Borough
Councillors or parish or town councillors within the Ashford area
you may make a complaint directly to Ashford Borough Council
provided the complaint relates to conduct which is or may be a
breach of the councillor code of conduct.
From 8 May 2008 the responsibility for considering complaints
that local councillors may have breached the Code of Conduct moved
from the Standards Board for England to Standards Committee of
local authorities. View the Code of Conduct adopted by Ashford Borough
Council. Parish Council Codes of Conduct are in very similar
terms.
If you wish to complain about the conduct of a councillor of
Ashford Borough Council or any of the parish or town councillors in
the Ashford area you must submit your complaint in writing by
downloading, completing and signing the Local Councillor Conduct
Complaint Form 60Kb PDF and posting it to:
The Monitoring Officer
Legal and Democratic Services
Ashford Borough Council
Civic Centre
Tannery Lane
Ashford Kent
TN23 1PL
Complaints will normally be considered by an Assessment Panel
which is a sub-committee of the Borough Council's Standards
Committee. If the Panel decides to take no action on a complaint
this can be reviewed at the request of the complainant by a Review
Panel. Where matters are referred for investigation they may end up
being heard before a Hearings Panel to decide upon further action.
The Panels can only deal with complaints about the conduct of a
councillor and the Terms of Reference 30.5Kb
PDF of the Assessment Panel, the Review Panel and the Hearings
Panels set out what the Panels can do. The Panels cannot deal with
complaints about things that are not covered by the Code of
Conduct. In deciding how to deal with complaints, the Assessment
Panel or Review Panel will have regard to Assessment
Criteria 56.7Kb PDF adopted by the Standards Committee.
Further guidance may be obtained from the Standards Board's website.
The Standards Board has provided a guide to Making a Complaint
which can be downloaded from the website and it also contains much
other useful and relevant information.
The Borough Council's Monitoring Officer can be contacted by
email terry.mortimer@ashford.gov.uk or
by telephone on 01233 330210.
This webpage was updated on
8/13/2009