Summary: Mrs X complains about the Council’s decision on her complaint she made to it about the conduct of a councillor which has caused Mrs X upset. We will not investigate as it is unlikely we will find fault by the Council and the injustice to Mrs X is not sufficient to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s decision not to investigate her complaint about the content of an email a councillor sent to another council officer about her. Mrs X feels the councillor made an unsubstantiated allegation about her and has been upset by this.

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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, or the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mrs X said in her complaint. I have considered the comments she made in response to my draft decision.

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What I found

5. Mrs X was experiencing a problem with rats at her property and contacted her neighbour, a councillor, about this. Mrs X says in doing this, she was contacting her neighbour in their capacity as a councillor.
6. Mrs X is unhappy about the content of an email the councillor sent to a colleague within the Council which said ‘her current issue is that she is accusing me of infesting her property with rats’. Mrs X says this is an unsubstantiated allegation which she wants the councillor to retract.
7. Mrs X made a code of conduct complaint to the Council about this. The Council considered the complaint in line with its procedure but rejected it, as in its view, there was no evidence that the councillor was acting in a professional capacity and so no breach of its code of conduct could have occurred.
8. In later communications with Mrs X, the Council has explained that councillors do not act in personal capacities when dealing with Ward issues impacting on their own homes as this would be a conflict of interest.

Analysis

9. The Council has considered Mrs X’s complaint and there is no indication of fault in how it did this. While Mrs X does not agree with its decision, we cannot question it in the absence of fault.
10. While Mrs X is upset about the comment made in the email, from our perspective, this does not represent a level of injustice that would warrant our involvement.
11. We have no remit to impose sanctions on councillors and so we could not achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks, which is for the councillor to retract the comment.
12. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

13. My decision is we will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot question the Council’s decision on it in the absence of fault, and I have seen no indication of fault. Additionally, the injustice to Mrs X from her complaint is not at a level that would warrant our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman