Manchester City Council (20 010 832)

Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 26 Feb 2021

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint made against a councillor. We will not investigate the complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains the Council failed to properly investigate his complaint made against a councillor and did not look at the evidence he had to support his allegations. Mr X says he believes the councillor should receive a police warning and be made to resign as a councillor.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
  • the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
  • 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, or
  • we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Mr X and gave him the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

  1. Mr X made a Member Code of Conduct complaint to the Council about the actions of a councillor who he said had made false allegations about him to the police and who had blocked him from the councillor’s social media account.
  2. In accordance with normal procedures, the Council’s Monitoring Officer consulted with the Independent Person and considered what the councillor said. Having done so the Monitoring Officer decided there had been no breach of the code and informed Mr X of this decision.
  3. Dissatisfied with the Council’s response, Mr X complained to us.

Assessment

  1. The Council considered Mr X’s complaint but decided there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct. We do not offer a right of appeal against a council’s decision on member conduct complaints and while we can consider if there was fault in the way a council considered the complaint, in this case I have seen no evidence to suggest there was fault.
  2. Moreover, the outcomes Mr X seeks for his complaint are not ones an investigation by the Ombudsman can achieve.

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Final decision

  1. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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