Complaints and appeals
(1) Complaints
If you want to make a complaint against a council official:
(a) It is best first to complain to the council. The person to whom you should send a complaint is:
Jane Lucas
Brighton & Hove City Council
King's House
Grand Avenue,
Hove BN3 2LS
Ms Lucas's email address is:
Jane.Lucas@brighton-hove.gov.uk
(b) Ms Lucas has to reply within 20 working days. If you are unsatisfied with her response, your next step would be to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. The url is:
(2) If you want to complain against a councillor
You can complain to the Standards Board for England. The url is:
You can only complain if you think that a councillor has broken the council's code of conduct. The code of conduct is part of the council's constitution and can be found at:
www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/downloads/
bhcc/
Part_5_-_Codes_and_Protcols_-_October_2006.pdf
Or just go to the B&H Council website, search for 'Constitution' and look for Part 5.
(3) If you want to object to the Schools Adjudicator about the new admissions system
Start by looking at the new Admissions Code, at:
www.dfes.gov.uk/sacode/docs/
FinalSACode08Jan2007.doc
To see your right of appeal, look at #4.17(d)
(4) If you want to find out about Judicial Review
You could read:
www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/
research/rp2006/rp06-044.pdf
(5) If you want to ask the council to release documents or emails to you under Freedom of Information legislation
Look first at:
You need to click on: 'Want some information from a public body?'
The official at the council who deals with FOI requests is Paul O'Neill. His email is:
Paul.Oneill@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Don't ask for too much. One ground on which a request can be refused is that it would take too much work to satisfy it. Public bodies apparently set their own limits on this, and the one for Brighton and Hove is two and a half working days.