Complaints about councillors

Councillors are expected to meet the standards set out in the code of conduct, and as representatives in public life. 

If you have a complaint about an Ashfield councillor, please contact us. 

 

1. Your details

Your address and contact details will not usually be released unless necessary or to deal with your complaint.

However, we will tell the following people that you have made this complaint:

  • the Member(s) you are complaining about
  • the Monitoring Officer of the Authority
  • the Parish Clerk (if applicable)

We will tell them your name and give them a summary of your complaint. We will give them full details of your complain where necessary or appropriate to be able to deal with it. If you have serious concerns about your name and a summary, or details of your complaint being released, please complete Section 6 of this form.

2. Type of complaint
Please tell us which complainant type best describes you:
3. Making your complaint

Please provide us with the name of the member(s) you believe have breached the Code of Conduct and the name of their Authority:

4. Complaint details

Please explain in this section what the Member has done that you believe breaches the Code of Conduct. If you are complaining about more than one Member you should clearly explain what each individual person has done that you believe breaches the Code of Conduct.

It is important that you provide all the information you wish to have taken into account when a declaration is made on whether to take any action on your complaint. For example:

  • You should be specific, wherever possible, about exactly what you are alleging the Member said or did. For instance, instead of writing that the Member insulted you, you should state what it was they said.
  • You should provide the dates of the alleged incidents wherever possible. If you cannot provide exact dates it is important to give a general timeframe.
  • You should confirm whether there are any witnesses to the alleged conduct and provide their names and contact details if possible.
  • You should provide any relevant background information.

5. Confidentiality

In the interests of fairness and natural justice, we believe Members who are complained about have a right to know who has made the complaint. We also believe they have a right to be provided with a summary of the complaint. We are unlikely to withhold your identity of the details of your complaint unless there are exceptional circumstances.

To allow us to give full consideration to a request for confidentiality, we require you to provide us with an explanation of the reason why you think your details should be kept confidential. Any request for confidentiality should be made in the space below.

Please note that requests for confidentiality or requests for suppression of complaint details will not automatically be granted. The Monitoring Officer and/or the Audit and Standards Committee will consider the request alongside the substance of your complaint. We will then contact you with the decision. If your request for confidentiality is not granted, we will usually allow you the option of withdrawing your complaint.

However, it is important to understand that in certain exceptional circumstances where the matter complained about is very serious, we can proceed with an investigation or other action and disclose your name even if you have expressly asked us not to.

6. Informal resolution

It is often possible to resolve complaints without recourse to formal investigation and hearing. In such cases it is important that appropriate action to seek to achieve resolution of the matter is undertaken without delay.

To assist us in doing this it would be helpful if you could describe what remedy you are seeking/what action you think would be appropriate to resolve your complaint.

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Contact details

Page last updated 10 September 2025

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