Is a direct approach to the Standards Committee a reasonable step?

Question

A Code of Conduct complaint was made by a parish councillor to the Monitoring Officer on the grounds that during a council meeting the chairman allowed bullying and intimidation and participated in making accusations which compromised the integrity of the complainant.

Despite two enquiries about progress it took 24 working days for the complaint to be acknowledged with a comment that it was being considered, and it is now 35 days since commencement of the process. The policy of the District Council is that a decision should be reached within 20 days.

Under these circumstances is it reasonable to consider making an approach to the Standards Committee?

Answer 1

There's no harm trying, but I think that the committee will probably only consider matters brought to them by the Monitoring Officer. In which case, the only formal mechanism for exerting pressure would be to raise a complaint against the District Council for failing to perform in accordance with its policy.