Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate how the Council has responded to Mr X’s complaint about the conduct of an elected member of the Council. This is because Mr X is not caused significant injustice from his complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about delay in the Council dealing with his complaint about the conduct of an elected member.

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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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. 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

4. I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint. I have considered Mr X’s comments about my draft decision, which I sent to him.

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What I found

5. Mr X complained to the Council that an elected member was rude to a member of the public at a Council meeting. Mr X says the matter remains unresolved, ten months on.

Assessment

6. Mr X is not personally affected by the elected member’s actions or the Council’s response to his complaint, to a degree that would warrant the Ombudsman’s involvement. We will not therefore investigate.

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Final decision

7. My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint as Mr X is not significantly, personally affected by it.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman