Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his complaint about parish councillors and a parish council clerk. Mr X is not caused a level of personal injustice from his complaint to warrant the Ombudsman’s involvement and the Ombudsman has no remit to investigate complaints about parish councils/clerks.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has not properly addressed his complaint about malfeasance in public office by two parish councillors and a parish clerk.

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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, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to investigate (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as parish councils (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint and the comments he made in response to my draft decision.

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What I found

5. Mr X complains the Council has not properly addressed the complaint he made to it about malfeasance in public office by two parish councillors and a parish clerk. Mr X says the residents of the parish have been affected by the Council’s response in that trust in its parish councillors has been lowered. Mr X wants sanctions to be taken against the councillors and clerk.

Analysis

6. We have no legal remit to investigate parish councils; this includes the actions of parish councillors and clerks. We could investigate, as a separate matter, the Council’s administration of Mr X’s conduct complaint about parish councillors. However, we will not do so as Mr X is not significantly, personally affected by this and so to investigate would not be a good use of our limited resources.
7. While Mr X raises public interest issues, these do not represent grounds for our involvement. As stated, we have no legal remit to investigate parish councils and can achieve no meaningful outcome for Mr X. Additionally, as Mr X alleges criminal offences have been committed, the police are the most appropriate body to respond.
8. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final Decision

9. My decision is that the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X is not caused a significant personal injustice from his complaint and the Ombudsman cannot achieve any meaningful outcome for him.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman