Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint made against a councillor who did not respond to communication he sent. We will not investigate the complaint because there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council and insufficient injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s response to the complaint he made about a councillor who did not respond to emails he sent. While Mr X says he was not upset or distressed by the issue, he says a failure to respond to emails is disrespectful and guidelines should be published by the Council for councillors to respond in a timely manner.

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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 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. 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

4. In December last year, Mr X emailed a councillor with a question and did not receive a response. He followed this up a week later and again a few days after this.
5. Having received no response to his original question or to his queries about response times for replying to questions, Mr X made a complaint about the councillor.
6. In accordance with normal procedures, the Council considered the complaint and sought the views of the Independent Person. Having done so, the Council decided no breach of the Code of Conduct had occurred and that no further action would be taken.
7. Dissatisfied with the Council’s response, Mr X complained to us.

Assessment

8. 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 the council considered the complaint, we will only investigate if there is sufficient injustice to warrant our involvement or we consider it in the public interest to do so.
9. In this case, there is no evidence to suggest there was fault in the way the Council dealt with the matter, and there is insufficient injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no evidence to suggest fault by the Council and insufficient injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman