Complain about a Councillor

Councillors' Code of Conduct

The Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities to adopt a Code of Conduct that sets out

  • the rules governing the behaviour of Members when acting in their official capacity
  • the Declaration of Interests for their Members when acting in their official capacity

We adopted our Code of Conduct on 11 June 2012 and it came into effect on 1 July 2012.

We publish our Code of Conduct for Members in Chapter 3 of our Constitution

Complaints and investigations against Councillors

The Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities to have clear arrangements too;

  • deal with complaints that Councillors have not followed the code of conduct
  • investigate any complaints against a Councillor
  • determine the outcome of the complaint

If you want to make a complaint about a Councillor, you must do it in writing.

You can make your complaint using our online form.

Complain about a Councillor

To complete this form you will need:

  • your name
  • your phone number
  • your email address
  • name of the Councillor or Councillors you are complaining about
  • details about the complaint

Our complaints assessment criteria and process for handling complaints are temporarily unavailable and will be made available again as soon as possible. For any queries relating to this, please contact our Deputy Monitoring Officer.

Our Monitoring Officer will use these documents to assess if we will:

  • investigate your complaint
  • refer your complaint to our Standards sub-committee

Our arrangements cover:

  • Braintree District Council Councillors
  • Parish Councillors of the 52 parish councils in our district
  • Town Councillors of the two town councils in our district

You can use our online form to submit a complaint about a Councillor in one of these roles.

Our arrangements only deal with complaints about the alleged behaviour and conduct of Councillors.

Our arrangements do not deal with complaints about:

  • our services or departments
  • our policies.
  • Parish or Town clerks
  • matters not covered by the code of conduct

Read our make a complaint page to find out how we deal with these types of complaints.

Managing your complaint

Our Monitoring officer will use our process for handling complaints to deal with your complaint.

Our Monitoring Officer will review every complaint we receive using our complaints assessment criteria.

During the review, our Monitoring Officer will consult with one of our appointed independent persons before deciding if your complaint:

  • merits no further action
  • merits early informal conciliation
  • will go to Standards Sub-Committee to consider if it merits further investigation

Our Monitoring Officer may need more information from you to help them come to a decision. They will contact you for any other information they need. If you do not respond to this request within 15 working days, the Monitoring Officer will close your complaint.

Our Monitoring Officer may need more information from the Councillor you have complained about to help them to come to a decision. If the Councillor does not respond to this request within 15 working days the Monitoring Officer will proceed with the complaint.

If you are unsure about any aspect of the process, you contact our Monitoring Officer before submitting your complaint.

Our Monitoring Officer and their role

Our Monitoring Officers are

  • Kim Mayo, Monitoring Officer
  • Emma Wisbey, Deputy Monitoring Officer

We appoint our Monitoring Officer under Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

Our Monitoring officer has a number of statutory functions including their role in dealing with complaints about Councillors.

Independent Persons

The role of the independent person is set out in Section 28 of the Localism Act 2011.

The independent person’s views must be sought, and taken into account, by the Monitoring Officer when considering an allegation in respect of a breach of the Code of Conduct.

Standards sub-committee

We have appointed a Standards sub-committee which;

  • deals with the conduct of Councillors
  • can hold a hearing into allegations that a Councillor has failed to follow the code of conduct

The role of our Standards sub-committee also covers Parish and Town Councillors in our district. After a hearing, the Standards sub-committee will make recommendations to the relevant Parish or Town Council. These recommendations are non-binding.

Customer Services

Address: Causeway House,
Bocking End,
Braintree,
Essex,
CM7 9HB

Telephone: 01376 552525