The Standards Committee is the committee established by the council to consider complaints that a member of the borough council, or a member of one of the parish councils in the borough council's district, has broken the rules in the Members' Code of Conduct. You have the right to submit a complaint to the council's Monitoring Officer if you believe that a councillor has broken these rules.
Please note that to view the PDF format documents on this site you will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader software (opens in a new window).
The Members' Code of Conduct, which has been adopted by the council and the parish councils in the district, is reproduced in full on this website. It forms part of the Council's Constitution - on that web page, please then scroll down to Part 5 - Codes and Protocols.
After you have read the Members' Code of Conduct you will have a good idea as to whether your complaint is one that the Standards Committee could investigate.
If you need any help in deciding whether to submit a complaint, please do not hesitate to contact the council's Head of Legal and Democratic Services:
You will need to complete the complaint form and send it to the Council's Monitoring Officer, who should acknowledge it within 5 working days. He may ask you for further details.
If your complaint is about something which is covered by the Code, it is passed to a Panel made up from the members of the Standards Committee. The Panel will make a decision on whether your complaint should be progressed. All the procedures for this, and on what happens after that, are set out in the Guide we have published.
The documents you need to make a formal complaint are available online. They are:
If you want to make a complaint, please print off the complaint form and, when completed, post or deliver it to the Monitoring Officer at the Council Offices, Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, HG1 2SG.
If you need any advice on completing the form, please contact the Member Services Manager or the Principal Member Services Officer at the Council Offices or: