Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint about the Council’s decision to reject her complaint about her ward councillor. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision and the injustice Mrs B has suffered as a result of the Council’s decision on her complaint against the councillor is not of itself sufficient to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs B, complained about the Council’s decision to reject her complaint about her ward councillor, Councillor Z. She says the councillor continued to mislead her and she does not feel he acted in her best interests.

Back to top

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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• 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)

3. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered the information Mrs B provided, her comments on my draft decision, the Ombudsman’s decision on Mrs B’s previous complaint and the Council’s code of conduct for councillors.

Back to top

What I found

5. The Localism Act 2011 says councils must have a Code of Conduct for elected councillors. They must also have a process in place to consider allegations that a councillor has not complied with the Code.
6. The Ombudsman may only investigate the decisions of the Council in its investigation of Members’ breaches of the Code of Conduct. We cannot consider councillors’ actions when they are not acting on formal council business in their capacity as councillors, for example when they are carrying out their pastoral role as ward councillors. But we can consider complaints about councils’ decisions on whether a councillor has breached the Code of Conduct.
7. In this case the Council’s view was Councillor Z had done everything feasible within his role as councillor in dealing with the issue Mrs B had raised. In any case the Council said the conduct Mrs B had complained about would not fall within the provisions of the Code of Conduct.
8. In reaching its decision the Council took account of what Mrs B said in her complaint and the provisions of its Code of Conduct. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision so we cannot question whether that decision was right or wrong.
9. The Ombudsman upheld Mrs B’s previous complaint against the Council about the way it dealt with her complaints of anti-social behaviour and noise. The Ombudsman could not know, but for the fault he identified, the Council would have taken action. But he considered this was possible. And he did say if the Council had carried out/reviewed a risk assessment it would have provided support to Mrs B. The injustice Mrs B has suffered as a result of the Council’s decision on her complaint against Councillor Z is not, of itself, sufficient to justify our involvement.

Back to top

Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its decision and the injustice Mrs B has suffered as a result of the Council’s decision on her complaint against Councillor Z is not, of itself, sufficient to justify our involvement.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman