Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council has not dealt properly with his parish councillor conduct complaint. The Council is not at fault and has not caused Mr X injustice. We cannot lawfully investigate the parish council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to properly consider his complaint about the conduct of the chair of a parish council. Mr X says the Council has not had proper regard to the code of conduct and requirements that councillors display selflessness and accountability. Mr X says he attended a parish council meeting, during the summer, when the chair halted his speech criticising the actions of a councillor. The chair, replying to his email, advised him to moderate his language warning that if he criticised the councillor again he would be excluded from the meeting. Mr X says he was not unruly or out of order at the meeting. He says the councillor’s actions harm free speech. Mr X says the District Council should make the parish council give him a public apology and name the councillors in its register of complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
• (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We investigate complaints about most councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of parish councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered Mr X’s information and comments. The information includes the Council’s reply to Mr X’s complaint and the emails between Mr X and the chair of the parish council.

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My assessment

6. I will not investigate this complaint for the following reasons:
7. There is insufficient evidence of Council fault. The Council decided the code of conduct was not breached by the chair of the meeting or by the councillor whose history Mr X criticised during the meeting. The chair of the meeting was entitled to warn a person if it was considered his behaviour was inappropriate.
8. I do not consider the Council’s decision causes Mr X an injustice or that it would be a good use of limited public resources to investigate the complaint.
9. We cannot investigate the actions of the parish council which are outside our jurisdiction (see paragraph 4 above).

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council has not dealt properly with his parish councillor conduct complaint. The Council is not at fault and has not caused Mr X injustice. We cannot lawfully investigate the parish council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman