Shropshire Council (19 002 273)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 21 Jun 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains the Council refuses to consider her complaint that a parish councillor breached the code of conduct. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we will find fault in the Council’s actions.
The complaint
- Ms X complains the Council refuses to consider her complaint that a parish councillor breached the code of conduct.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 it is unlikely we would find fault.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A (6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information provided by Ms X, including the Council’s responses to her complaint. She commented on the draft version of this decision.
What I found
- Ms X complains a parish councillor failed to ownership of land when considering a planning application.
- The Council told Ms X that land ownership is a pecuniary interest. And failure to declare such interests are a criminal matter. It advised her to report her complaint to the Police.
- Ms X disagrees with the Council.
- Section 34 of the Localism Act 2011 makes it a criminal offence to fail, without reasonable excuse, to declare a pecuniary interest.
- The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 specify that any beneficial interest in land within the area of the relevant authority is a pecuniary interest.
Final decision
- I will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s refusal to consider her complaint. This is because a councillor’s failure to disclose a pecuniary interest is a criminal offence which should be reported to the Police.
Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman