Comments and complaints

A complaint about the conduct of a Pendle Councillor, or about a Pendle Parish or Town Councillor, must be made to the Standards Committee.

The Standards Committee can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a Councillor of Pendle Council or a Pendle Parish or Town Councillor.  It will not deal with complaints about things that are not covered by the Code of Conduct.

• Pendle Borough Councillor Code of Conduct
• Parish Councillor Code of Conduct
  

You must make it in writing and send it to:

or philip.mousdale@pendle.gov.uk

If possible, please download and use the complaint form.

What will happen to your complaint?

Once you have made a complaint, you will be told in writing what will happen to it.  If it is properly for the Standards Committee, a meeting will be held chaired by one of the independent people on the Standards Committee to decide what should happen next.  This should happen within 20 days.

It can decide to :

• Investigate your complaint.
  
• Take some other action.
  
• Send it to the Standards Board for England to investigate.
  
• Send it to the standards committee of another council if the councillor belongs to that authority, or one of the parish or town councils that come under it.
  
• Take no further action.
  

The Standards Committee will write to you telling you of its decision and giving you full details of what happens next.

• More information about the Standards Committee
  

What is "other action"?

"Other action" is usually some form of conflict resolution, mediation or training.  This decision is reached where the Standards Committee decides that it is likely to resolve the situation more effectively than an investigation and possible sanction.

What if the Standards Committee decides to take no further action and you don't agree?

The Standards Committee will tell you the reason for its decision.  You may not agree with the reasons, or think that it did not make the decision properly, or you may have new information that you think might affect its decision.  If so, you can ask for a review of the decision.  You have to ask it to do this in writing within 30 calendar days of receiving its decision.

The Standards Committee must consider your request within three months.

The decision will be reviewed by at least three members of the Standards Committee.  None of the people who made the original decision are allowed to take part in the review.  This meeting will be chaired by one of the independent people on the Standards Committee.  They can uphold the original decision or overturn it, and will tell you in writing what they have decided.