Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with her complaint about a parish councillor which she says has caused her to feel anxious. This is because it is unlikely the Ombudsman will find fault by the Council and he cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has not properly dealt with her complaint about the conduct of a parish councillor.

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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 it is unlikely we would find fault, it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome (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)
4. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as parish councils or parish councillors. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered what Mrs X said in her complaint and I have sent her my draft decision on it for her comments. Mrs X made no further comment.

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What I found

6. Mrs X complained to the Council about comments a parish councillor made to her on social media, which Mrs X felt threatened by.
7. The Council investigated Mrs X’s complaint and concluded the councillor had used a poor choice of words which could be construed as threatening. The Council advised the councillor that in future he should be more mindful of how the public might perceive the words he uses.
8. While the Council was investigating this complaint, Mrs X says the councillor emailed her privately to threaten her with legal action for defamation. Mrs X complained to the Council about this and is unhappy that it said the councillor was within his rights to do this.
9. Mrs X wants further action to be taken against the councillor to prevent him from bullying residents in future.

Analysis

10. The Council considered Mrs X’s complaint and made a decision it is entitled to. We cannot question that unless there is fault in the way it considered Mrs X’s complaint and I have not seen such fault.
11. Notwithstanding this, while we can look at the Council’s investigation of Mrs X’s complaint, the law does not allow us to investigate the actions of the councillor or impose sanction upon him. It is unlikely therefore that any investigation by us would change the outcome of the complaint and we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X wants.
12. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

13. My decision is that the Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we will find fault by the Council and we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman