If your complaint is about a town or parish councillor, then you should contact the relevant town or parish council first to make your complaint.

Councillor code of conduct

Councillors should follow the Seven Principles of Public Life, also known as the Nolan Principles. 

Building on the principles outlined above, some general principles have been developed specifically for the role of a Councillor. 

Councillors must:

• act with integrity and honesty
• act lawfully
• treat all persons fairly and with respect; and
• lead by example and act in a way that secures public confidence in the role of 
  councillor.

This code of conduct applies to all forms of communication and interaction, including; 

• at face-to-face meetings 
• at online or telephone meetings
• in written communication 
• in verbal communication
• in non-verbal communication 
• in electronic and social media communication, posts, statements and 
  comments.

Please read our full Councillor code of conduct [PDF, 0.3MB] before submitting your complaint to our monitoring officer, you will need to evidence why you believe the Code of Conduct has not been followed.

To complain about a councillor/member of the South Cambridgeshire District Council or a member of a town/parish council in South Cambridgeshire you need to complete The code of conduct complaint Form. [PDF, 0.5MB]

The completed form should be emailed to the Monitoring Officer.

Please note the Monitoring Officer can only deal with complaints about the behaviour of a member and cannot receive complaints about things that are not covered by the Members' code of conduct, such as maladministration.

After you submit your complaint

Within 5 working days of getting your complaint, the monitoring officer will:

• confirm they received your complaint
• contact the councillor that you have complained about with a copy of your complaint and the evidence
• ask the councillor complained about to give a written response to your complaint along with evidence, within 5 working days.

The Council’s Civic Affairs Committee oversee complaints about councillors.

Advice on making a complaint

For further help and advice you can:

• visit the Local Government Ombudsman website for advice about making a complaint
• get free independent advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau.