Council accounts: a guide to your rights
This guide ‘Council accounts: a guide to your rights’ explains how you can use your rights responsibly. It explains what the law says about the accounts and your rights. And, if you have concerns about your council that are not about the accounts, it points you to other sources of advice and more information.
Councils tell local residents and taxpayers how they spend your money by publishing yearly accounts and details of their spending.
As a local resident you have legal rights which let you inspect your council’s accounts and related documents. If you are also a council taxpayer you also have rights to:
- ask questions about the accounts, and
- object to them.
You may also use the ‘Council accounts – Your rights: Notice of an objection’ form. This form helps you to tell the auditor clearly about your formal objection to an item or items in the current year’s accounts of your council. It cannot be used for any other purpose.