Executive Summary

The public have a number of rights in their dealing with the Council. These are set out in more detail in Article 3. Some of these are legal rights, whilst others depend on the Council's own processes.

Members of the public have the right to:

• vote at local elections if they are registered;
• contact their local Councillor about any matters of concern to them;
• obtain a copy of the Constitution;
• attend meetings of the Council and its committees except where, for example, personal or confidential matters are being discussed;
• petition to request a referendum on different form of Executive;
• ask questions
• speak at meetings of the Planning (Regulatory) Committee
• find out, from the Cabinet's forward plan, what major decisions are to be discussed by the Cabinet or decided by the Cabinet or officers, and when;
• attend meetings of the Cabinet where key decisions are being discussed or decided;
• see reports and background papers, and any record of decisions made by the Council and Cabinet;
• complain to the Council about any dissatisfaction they have with an action or lack of action by the Council;
• complain to the Ombudsman if they think the Council has not followed its procedures properly. However, they should only do this after using the Council's own complaints process;
• complain if they have evidence which they think shows that a Councillor has not followed the Council's Code of Conduct; and
• inspect the Council's accounts and make their views known to the external auditor.

Where members of the public use specific Council services, for example as a parent of a school pupil or as a Council tenant, they have additional rights conferred on them by law.