Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the Council deciding not to pursue the complainant’s concerns that a councillor is unable to perform his duties. This is because the alleged fault has not caused the complainant to suffer a significant personal injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr B, is unhappy the Council has refused to investigate his code of conduct complaint about a councillor who he believes is no longer physically or mentally capable of carrying out his duties.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered Mr B’s complaint to the Ombudsman and the information he provided about how he has been affected by the councillor’s behaviour. I also considered Mr B’s comments on a draft version of this statement.

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What I found

4. When I asked how he was affected by the councillor’s actions, Mr B referred to council meetings in 2017 where the draft Local Plan was being discussed. Mr B says the councillor was unable to hear to some of the questions/points of discussion at these meeting, and made incoherent and abrupt responses. Mr B also says the councillor was unable to recall statements he had made at previous meetings.
5. Mr B complained to the Council. But the Monitoring Officer said Mr B’s comments did not raise any matters which would be appropriate for the Council to consider.

Assessment

6. I appreciate Mr B is unhappy he has a councillor representing his area who he feels is unable to properly perform his duties.
7. But I have seen no evidence that the councillor’s actions/behaviour have directly resulted in Mr B suffering a significant personal injustice. With reference to paragraph 2 above, I therefore do not consider the Ombudsman should investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council deciding not to pursue Mr B’s concerns about the councillor.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint. This is because the alleged fault by the Council does not appear to have caused Mr B to suffer a significant personal injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman