Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision not to open a market on Christmas Eve. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and investigation is unlikely to achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, is a market trader. He complains the Council has decided not to open a market on Christmas Eve despite agreeing to extra trading days over the festive period in previous years.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. There is no requirement for the Council to open the market on Christmas Eve and it is therefore unlikely we would find fault in its decision not to. Christmas Eve is not a normal trading day and there is no suggestion Mr X’s licence guaranteed the market would be open. The decision does not therefore cause Mr X any financial loss, as he was never entitled to open his stall on Christmas Eve.
5. We also could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X by investigating this matter further. This is because investigations take several months and there is simply not enough time available before Christmas Eve to complete an investigation or recommend the action Mr X wants, which is for the Council to open the market on Christmas Eve. In any event it is not for us to make such decisions for the Council or to recommend remedies for any consequential losses Mr X believes he has suffered as a result of its decisions on trading days. There is therefore no benefit to investigating this matter further.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and an investigation would not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman