Test Valley Borough Council (25 012 067)
Category : Environment and regulation > Antisocial behaviour
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 29 Jan 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Council officer’s conduct during a meeting that Mr X was involved in. There is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating this matter.
The complaint
- Mr X was unhappy because a Council officer interrupted him at meeting he was involved in, during a time when he said he was providing a victim impact statement. Mr X said this left him feeling that his experience was not important to the Council.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr complained to the Council, saying a family member had told him that during a meeting, a Council officer, had shaken their head and disagreed verbally with something he was saying, during his victim impact statement.
- The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint and clarified its position about what the officer was disagreeing with.
- We will not investigate this complaint, because there is no worthwhile outcome we could achieve by investigating. Our role is not to investigate complaints about incivility. We only investigate those complaints where there is clear administrative fault by the Council, and it is of a type or scale there is a significant public interest in exposing and correcting it.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman