Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council responded to his complaint about the way the Mayor conducted an online Council meeting. This is because Mr X is not affected personally from his complaint to a degree that would warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council responded to his complaint about how the Mayor conducted an online Council meeting, which Mr X says failed to meet the rules contained in the Council’s constitution.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint and his comments made in response to my draft decision on the complaint, which I sent to him.

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What I found

4. Mr X complained to the Council about the way the Mayor conducted an online Council meeting, which Mr X says failed to meet the rules contained in the Council’s constitution.
5. Mr X says the Mayor failed to act in the public interest when she allowed motions preventing discussion on issues that affect members of the public, particularly in respect of an item about the number of signatures required for a petition.
6. Mr X says the Mayor conferred a distinct advantage on the ruling group by allowing the Leader of the Council to make a long speech but failed to allow opposition members to contribute to the discussion. Mr X also complains the Mayor wrongly ejected a councillor from the meeting.
7. Mr X feels let down as he considers the Mayor did not allow a full discussion at the meeting, particularly on the issue regarding how the Council responds to petitions. Mr X says he has been caused frustration and stress by how the meeting was conducted.
8. Mr X is unhappy as the Council decided not to pursue his complaint.

Analysis

9. Mr X clearly has strong feelings about how the Council meeting was handled and is disappointed with the Council’s decision on his complaint. However, from our perspective, the personal impact on Mr X is not significant enough to warrant our further involvement. Nor is this a complaint we would investigate on public interest grounds.
10. For this reason, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. My decision is that the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X is not significantly affected by his complaint and the Ombudsman’s further involvement is not therefore warranted.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman