Councillors complaints procedures

Members code of conduct

We adopted a Code of Conduct for Members and Co-opted Members of the Council which came into effect on 1 July 2012. The council’s Standards Committee is responsible for considering written complaints in respect of complaints that:

• Elected or co-opted Members of Swindon Borough Council have breached the Council’s Members' Code of Conduct
• Elected or co-opted Members of a Parish or Town Council in the Swindon Area have breached their Parish or Town Council Members' Code of Conduct.

How to make a complaint

If you wish to submit a complaint (as described above), you need to complete the complaints form and send it together with relevant supporting evidence to the Committee Officer at the contact address below.

Please note:

• The Standards Committee can only deal with complaints about the alleged behaviour and conduct of Councillors and will not deal with complaints about any of the Council’s departments, paid employees or matters not covered by the Council’s Members' Code of Conduct.
• All complaints must be made in writing using the complaints form and where possible, within 28 days of the alleged breach. 
• If you are unsure about any aspect of the process or need general advice, please contact the Committee Officer before submitting a complaint.

Procedure for considering complaints

The procedure for dealing with complaints document contains details of the procedure and assessment criteria that the Standards Committee will follow in considering complaints, and the potential sanctions available to the Standards Committees following a hearing if a Member is found to have breached the Code of Conduct.

Lisa Hall, Chief Legal Officer (Monitoring Officer)
E-mail: Lhall@swindon.gov.uk

Clerk to the Standards Committee
Swindon Borough Council
2nd Floor, Wat Tyler West
Beckhampton Street
Swindon
SN1 2JG

E-mail: CommitteeServices@Swindon.gov.uk