Complain about a councillor
All councillors, including city, town and parish, must follow a code of conduct. You can submit a complaint or concern about a councillor if you think they are not following their code of conduct.
You cannot use the codes to complain about what a councillor does as a private individual. If you want to complain about the decisions or actions we have taken, you need to complain about the Council.
To submit a complaint about a councillor, you will need:
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specific examples of what happened
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dates the alleged incidents took place
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if there were any witnesses of the breach
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any background information that could be relevant (such as letters or emails)
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to give an explanation of why we should withhold your details, if you want your complaint to be anonymous
Once we receive your complaint, we will:
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acknowledge your complaint
We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receiving it.
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assess your complaint
We will assess your complaint within five days, and decide what actions we need to take to deal with it. We can:
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take no action, if we find that the councillor has not breached the code
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resolve your concerns without an investigation
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ask an investigator to formally investigate your complaint
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refer your complaint to the Governance Committee
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refer your complaint to the police, if it is a criminal matter
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inform you of our next steps
Once we have assessed your complaint, we will keep you informed of any steps we intend to take including the timescales.
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inform you of the outcome if we investigate your complaint
If an investigator finds that the councillor has breached the code or if we refer your complaint to the Governance Committee, the Governance Committee will:
You can also view information about previous complaints.
We do not deal with complaints about Essex County Councillors. You need to submit your complaint to Essex County Council.