Standards Board for England

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The Standards Board for England was set up under the Local Government Act 2000. It enforces the code of conduct for English local authority councillors, which all local authorities are required to have. Members of the public can complain to the Board if they believe a councillor has breached the code.

1 Controversy
2 Issues
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Controversy

The establishment of the Standards Board and the implications thereof have been highly critisised as imposing unnecessary and unreasonable restrictions on Councillors such that those with personal experience of a subject can often be excluded from debating or voting on the issue.

John Pickersgill, a member of Derwentside council in County Durham, organised a local referendum on plans to build more wind turbines in his ward. His survey found that four out of five local people opposed the proposals. However, when he tried to raise his findings in a council meeting on the issue, he was judged to have a "prejudicial interest" and was excluded from the room. --Telegraph

[edit] Issues

predetermination - if a councillor has been deemed to have "made up their mind" on an issue they are banned from further input.
Interest - A car owner (an official one would expect to have good experience of driving issues) is no longer able to participate in discussions surrounding car ownership, parking and the like.