The council’s Code of Conduct and standards regime, which was established under the provisions of the Localism Act 2011, does not regulate a member's support for a particular policy or the political support for such a policy. Providing the policy is lawful, even if it is otherwise unpopular, a member is entitled to lend their support to that policy and the implementation of that policy. That can extend to engaging with groups and institutions which either support or disagree with the policy. They are not obliged to engage with everyone, or indeed anyone if they so choose.  How they choose to present their arguments is a matter for the member. Members are entitled to draw conclusions from documents and events which fall outside the mainstream.

A member derives their democratic mandate from the ballot box and is not obliged to lend their support for or against any particular policy, even if there is apparently a significant weight of public opinion for or against that policy.  Members have to exercise their own judgement for the whole community and will frequently be asked to make decisions which are not universally popular.

Matters which are essentially arguments and issues which lie in the political sphere upon which there are legitimate differences of opinion are not open to resolution through the council’s complaints process.

About you:

Please provide us with your name and contact 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) about whom you are complaining
- the Monitoring Officer of the Authority

We will tell them your name and give them a summary of your complaint. We will give them full details of your complaint where necessary or appropriate to be able to deal with it.

If you have serious concerns about your name and details of your complaint being released, please remember to fill out the section of the form which relates to confidentiality.