Summary: The Ombudsman will not consider this complaint about the Council’s handling of a code of conduct complaint against the Chairman of a Parish Council. This is because the underlying issues being complained about are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, and we would not normally consider the Council’s handling of the associated code of conduct complaint in isolation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr B, says the District Council has failed to properly consider his code of conduct complaint about the involvement of the Chairman of a Parish Council in matters relating to Mr B’s land. In particular, Mr B says:
• The District Council has failed to provide sufficient commentary on how it reached its decision to dismiss six parts of the complaint;
• The District Council has failed to respond to the seventh part of his complaint.
2. The outcomes Mr B seeks from his complaint are:
• An apology published in the Parish magazine
• Reimbursement of the costs he incurred during the land dispute with the Parish Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We can investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. We use 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. We refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may therefore decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

5. And we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about the matter that is concerning them. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. Also, we cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as Parish Councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)
7. Finally, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I have considered:
• Mr B’s complaint to the Ombudsman;
• The covering letter and seven bundles of information Mr B submitted to the Council for his code of conduct complaint;
• Mr B’s comments on a draft version of this statement.

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What I found

9. The underlying actions/events Mr B is complaining about occurred between 2011 and 2018.
10. Mr B submitted his associated code of conduct complaint to the Council in late‑November 2019 and it replied on 19 February 2020. Mr B then contacted the Ombudsman in early-March 2020.

Assessment

11. The underlying issues Mr B sought to raise in his code of conduct complaint to the District Council are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, due to the restrictions detailed in paragraphs five and six above. This is because:
• Although Mr B made his code of conduct complaint to the District Council more recently, the events/actions he was complaining about occurred more than 12 months ago, and it is reasonable to expect him to have contacted the Ombudsman about these issues sooner; and/or,
• Mr B is complaining about the actions/decisions of the Parish Council.
12. With reference to paragraph 7 above, as the central issues being complained about to the District Council are outside the Ombudsman’s remit, we would not normally investigate the way the District Council handled the associated code of conduct complaint in isolation. This is mainly because it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to come to a meaningful conclusion on such a matter without the Ombudsman considering the underlying issues that the law says we should not consider.
13. I do not consider the Ombudsman would be justified in departing from this normal approach in Mr B’s case. In reaching this view, I am also mindful that we cannot achieve the outcomes Mr B is seeking, as we have no power to recommend any remedial action by the Parish Council as it is not a body within our jurisdiction.

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Final decision

14. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint. This is because the substantive, underlying issues being complained about to the District Council are outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, and there are insufficient grounds to consider the associated code of conduct complaint process in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman