MAINTAINING HIGH STANDARDS

Guildford Borough Council always aims to ensure that its Councillors and staff maintain the highest standards of conduct in their activities.  To achieve this, various rules have been agreed to make sure they carry out their duties properly and correctly.  For example, once elected, Councillors have to sign up to a Local Code of Conduct, which sets out the standards expected of them and requires them not to bring the Council into disrepute or to misuse their official position.  The Council has established a Standards Committee to monitor compliance with this Code and to promote and maintain high standards of conduct throughout the authority.

If members of the public do wish to complain about the conduct of a Councillor and do not feel that this can be dealt with locally, they can do so by writing to the Standards Board for England at the following address:-

The Standards Board for England

First Floor

Cottons Centre

London

SE1 2QG

Telephone:  0800 107 2001

Facsimile:  020 7378 5005

E-mail:  [email protected]

Web: www.standardsboard.co.uk

The Standards Board will assess all complaints and decide whether they should be investigated.  If the Board considers that action should be taken, it may decide to refer the complaint for consideration by the Council’s own Standards Committee or, in more serious cases, to an independent tribunal.  The Borough Council recently approved a detailed procedure for hearing complaints about its Councillors, which may be referred by the Standards Board.

For further information about the local code of conduct for councillors in Guildford or on submitting complaints to the Standards Board for England, please contact Steve Benbough (Clerk and Solicitor’s Department) on 01483 444052 or e-mail [email protected] or contact the Standards Board direct at the above address.