Can Ex-Councillors Retain Access to Their Official Council[lor] Email Addresses?

Question

Where full-Council elections for all the seats on a Council are expected to realistically result in number of newly elected members replacing current sitting councillors (some being expected to 'retire' by choice and possibly others not being returned to office) can a Council decide in advance to extend the Council email access to the outgoing members (when they will become former Councillors after the election) for a number of months? Obviously former Councillors will have become members of the public, and some of email content will inevitably contain personal data and commercially sensitive information, other confidential content, etc that other non-Councillors are understandably unable to access directly, and former Councillors will presumably no longer be subject to the Code of Conduct, yet the Council presumably would remain the data controller. Is it typical to extend email access post- office-holding; and if so then for how long?

Answer 1

Why on earth would an ex member of the council remain in the council email system? It should be for council only use not public.Once resigned/voted out they are no longer councillors. Your email system should be robust and efficient enough to exclude ex councillors and add new councillors to the mailboxes available immediately by turning off passwords and removal from the system etc.

Should the council wish to contact an ex councillor regarding outstanding matters then this should be done by the clerk to the ex councillors private email as per any other member of the public.

Answer 2

Why would you allow a member of the public a councillor's email address?

Answer 3

I would encourage your officers to treat process like any credible business would.. You leave an organisation your passwords & access revoked almost instantly. Your treat every outgoing Cllr exactly the same.. with "no ohh but we like him etc" that just creates problems downstream. Take the emotion out of process by simply treating everyone same.

Answer 4

In contested elections especially at a higher level it's accepted practice to allow access for a short period after the election for the Councillor to tidy things up
I didn’t stand again so I took the opportunity before the last election to copy any emails I required also after the election it enabled me to tell residents who I was helping who their new Councillor was
What’s the exact time someone ceases to become a Councillor ?