Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a licensing sub-committee meeting. This is because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council. The complainant also had the right to appeal to the magistrate’s court.

The complaint

1. Mr X has complained about what happened during a licencing sub-committee meeting. Mr X says he was not given the opportunity to properly raise his concerns, and the Council has not provided a record of the meeting. Mr X has also complained about how the Council has dealt with his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X has complained about what happened during a licensing sub-committee meeting. He says the Council failed to notice a mistake in his representations before the meeting and he was not given the chance to properly raise his concerns. Mr X has also complained the Council has not responded to his request for a record of the meeting. However, the Council is not required to check representations for mistakes and Mr X did speak at the meeting. The Council also sent Mr X the decision record following the meeting as required.
8. I understand Mr X may disagree with the outcome of the sub-committee hearing. However, he had the right to appeal to the magistrate’s court. The decision record sent to Mr X would have set out this appeal right. I consider it would have been reasonable for Mr X to have used his appeal right and the Ombudsman will not usually investigate when someone had the right to appeal.
9. Mr X has also complained about the Council’s complaint handling. However, where the Ombudsman has decided not to investigate the substantive issues complained about, we will not usually use public resources to consider more minor matters such as complaint handling.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council. Mr X also had the right to appeal to the magistrate’s court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman