Summary: We will not investigate how the Council considered complaints about the conduct of a parish councillor. We are unlikely to find fault affected the Council’s decisions not to pursue the complaints.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr B, complained the Council has not properly investigated his concerns about the conduct of a parish councillor.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We have no jurisdiction to consider complaints about the actions of parish councils or parish councillors.
4. 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’.
5. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault;
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

6. 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 that is likely to have affected the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have considered what Mr B said in his complaint and background information provided by the Council Mr B commented on a draft before I made this decision.

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What I found

8. Mr B has complained to the Council on several occasions that a parish councillor had acted in ways that breached the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.
9. In each case, the Council considered whether the complaint would be a breach of the Code that would justify further investigation.
10. The Council’s Monitoring Officer, after discussion with the Independent Person, decided the Council would not investigate any of Mr B’s complaints further. The Monitoring Officer wrote to Mr B to explain the decisions.
11. I have seen no evidence of fault in how the Monitoring Officer made these decisions and we do not provide a right of appeal against them.

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Final decision

12. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find fault by the Council affected its decisions not to investigate Mr B’s complaints about the parish councillor.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman