Great Yarmouth Borough Council is seeking an individual with high moral standards to help police the conduct of its councillors.

Local authority and parish councillors must comply with a statutory national Code of Conduct which is enforced by a standards committee.

The committee is made up of Borough and Parish Councillors and two independent members. Great Yarmouth’s committee needs another independent member and is asking for applications to be made by July 6.

"The standards committee hears cases where councillors are alleged to have breached the Code and, if proven, it determines the appropriate penalty," explained Chris Skinner, the Borough Council’s Monitoring Officer, who is the principal adviser to the Committee.

"The Local Government Act 2000 introduced, for the first time in this country, a new system for ensuring that the very few councillors who abuse their position can be dealt with effectively. The work is split between the Standards Board for England and local Standards Committees, with more and more work being passed by the Board to Standards Committees.

"Candidates will be interviewed by the chairman of the Standards Committee with the final appointment being confirmed by the Council. If chosen as an independent member, they will be expected to attend between four to six meetings a year.

"Meetings are generally held in the daytime."

Nick Pownall, who is currently Chairman of the Standards Committee and has been an independent member for several years, said: "Being an independent member is an important and rewarding role, and provides an opportunity to put something back into the local community.

"The cases we hear can be interesting and we like to think that we deal with them in a fair and common sense way. It is satisfying to feel that we play a small part in ensuring that the public continues to have confidence in local democracy".

Application packs for the post can be obtained from:

Chris Skinner

Head of Central Services
Town Hall
Hall Plain
Great Yarmouth
NR30 2QF

Tel: 01493 846314

E-mail: cfs@great-yarmouth.gov.uk