Making a complaint about the conduct of a councillor

Speaker Listen to the text on this page

The Council and many of the district's town and parish councils have adopted the national Code of Conduct issued by the Government in April 2007. The Code of Conduct sets out the rules governing the behaviour of councillors in local authorities across the country and is included in Part 5 of the Council's Constitution.

You can complain about a councillor breaking any part of the Code of Conduct by filling in a complaints form and sending it to the standards committee of the council concerned. Details of what you can complain about and what is not covered by the Code are given in the leaflet below:

How to make a complaint about a councillor (new window PDF 488KB)

Complaints about the conduct of a Suffolk Coastal district councillor or a councillor from one of the district's parish or town councils should be submitted to:

Chairman of the Assessment Sub-Committee,
The Standards Committee,
Suffolk Coastal District Council,
Melton Hill,
Woodbridge IP12 1AU.

Fax: 01394 385100
Email: committee.section@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk

Complaints against county councillors (new window) should be made to Suffolk County Council's Standards Committee.

Complaints forms

You can download or print off a complaints form by following the links below. Complaint forms are also available at the Council’s main reception desk.

Printable form (new window PDF 54KB) - for completion by hand and submission by fax or post.
Electronic form (new window Word 106KB) - Word document that can be submitted by email, fax or post on completion.

Follow this link for help with opening and downloading Word and PDF files.

What happens next?

The assessment sub-committee can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a councillor. It will not deal with complaints about things that are not covered by the Code of Conduct. Any complaints must be clear as to why the complainant thinks that a councillor has not followed the Code of Conduct.

An initial assessment of the complaint will be made within 20 working days of receipt. If the decision is to take no further action, complainants will have the right to ask for that initial decision to be reviewed.

Follow this link for information about Suffolk Coastal's Standards Committee.

For further information please contact the Council’s Monitoring Officer, Hilary Slater, on 01394 444336 or email to hilary.slater@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk.