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.