Councillors

When you make a complaint, it has to be in writing.  You can use our form if you wish.  If you need assistance with this please contact us.

Please include as much detail as possible to help us establish the facts and, if possible, tell us which part of the Code of Conduct you feel the Councillor or co-opted Member might have breached.

In the interests of fairness and natural justice we will inform the Councillor who has made the complaint and why.  If you do not want the Councillor to know who you are please tell us when you make the complaint, and this will be discussed with you.

The Monitoring Officer (or their Deputy) will acknowledge receipt of written complaints within 7 working days. Within a further 10 working days, they will contact you to agree what your complaint is and advise if they need further information. We will send you a reminder if we haven't heard from you after another 10 working days. If you are asked to provide more information but choose not to, your complaint will be 'closed' after 4 weeks from the date we have sent you a reminder of our request for further information from you.

The Monitoring Officer must consult an Independent Person, appointed by the Council, to help them decide whether your complaint warrants investigation. If your complaint does not meet the legal jurisdiction and local assessment criteria adopted by the Council you will be advised within 14 working days of the receipt of your complaint that it is not going to be investigated and why, and their decision is final.

The Monitoring Officer will gather the facts and contact the Councillor concerned who will be given 14 working days to respond with their views about your complaint. The Monitoring Officer will try to resolve complaints informally and can do so at any stage of the process.

If the Monitoring Officer decides your complaint does merit formal investigation and an Investigating Officer is appointed, they will contact you within 10 working days of being appointed to gather all the facts before making a draft report which you will be asked to comment on before it is finalised and given to the Monitoring Officer to decide if no action is necessary, whether it can be resolved informally or if a Hearing needs to be convened if there is a case to answer.

The Monitoring Officer will keep you informed of progress with dealing with your complaint. We will try to resolve complaints without undue delay. However, the process may take up to 12 weeks depending on how complicated the complaint is, the steps that need to be taken to establish all the facts and gather supporting information and whether there needs to be a hearing.

If you are not satisfied with the way your complaint has been handled you can follow the Council’s Complaints Policy.

If a Councillor is not satisfied with the process followed to deal with a complaint about them, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) can investigate complaints from locally elected councillors where they allege they have suffered a personal injustice because of actions taken by a body in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This is because where a councillor makes a complaint of this type, they are not doing so on behalf of the council or another public body, but in their own personal capacity. They are also not an employee, governed by a personnel relationship with a council, where there are legal limits on what the Ombudsman can investigate.

If you wish to compliment a Councillor email them direct or email democratic.services@runnymede.gov.uk

Complaints and compliments about Councillors are reported annually to the Standards and Audit Committee

If you wish you can complete the form online to ensure that we have the information needed to consider your complaint.

Make a complaint about councillors