Tower Hamlets Constitution

Citizens have a number of general rights including to:

• contact the Mayor or their local Councillor about any matters of concern to them

• participate in the Tower Hamlets Partnership and consultative mechanisms or service user groups, if selected or appointed to do so;

• complain about Council services, actions, the conduct of Members or to highlight potential malpractice or illegality;

• examine the Council’s accounts when open for inspection and make their views known to the external auditor;

• vote at Mayoral and Council elections if they are eligible and registered;

Citizens on the electoral register have the right to vote at elections. All citizens (that is people living, working or studying in the borough) have the right to present personally or to request a Councillor to present a petition on their behalf to Council, the Cabinet, Scrutiny, Regulatory or other Committees/ Sub Committees or Panels, subject to the detailed provisions laid down in the Petition Scheme and the procedures adopted by those bodies.

All citizens have the right to participate in Council and Committee meetings and contribute to investigations by Scrutiny Panels. Processes for public participation are set out in the procedures for various Committees and meetings including in Section 26 (Council Procedure Rules) and Section 30 (Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules). Individual Committees such as the Licensing and Strategic Development Committee will set out procedures to follow for public participation.

As a summary, citizens can:

• access the Constitution;

• attend and record formal meetings of Council and its Committees except where confidential or exempt information is likely to be disclosed, and the meeting is therefore held in private;

• attend and record meetings of the Cabinet and any other Executive bodies except where confidential or exempt information is likely to be disclosed, and the meeting is therefore held in private;

• see forward plan notices of forthcoming decisions, plus reports, background papers and any records of decisions made by the Council and the Mayor, the Executive or appropriate Member or Key Decisions taken by officers;

• see unrestricted reports and associated background papers and any published record of decisions made by Council, other non-executive Committees/ Sub-Committees;

• speak at Development or Licensing Committees/ Sub-Committees in favour or against planning or licensing applications, subject to the detailed provisions laid down in procedures adopted by those bodies;

• present petitions or otherwise participate in meetings of Council, the Cabinet, Scrutiny, Regulatory or other Committees, depending on their specific procedure rules, and contribute to investigations by Scrutiny;

All citizens have the right to:

• submit a compliment or comment on the Council and its services;

• complain to the authority itself under its complaints scheme or any other applicable statutory complaints scheme;

• complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Housing Ombudsman after using the Council’s own complaints scheme;

• and complain the Council’s Monitoring Officer about a breach of the Code of Conduct for Members, or to raise a public interest concern if they have evidence which they think shows malpractice, wrongdoing, illegality or risk in the Council and which is not appropriate for consideration under another Council procedure.