Guildford Borough Council (21 012 132)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about councillor conduct as it is made late to us and there are not good reasons to investigate now.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council has not properly responded to her complaint that a councillor failed to declare a pecuniary interest in respect of a planning decision in 2016. Mrs X says she has been caused upset and distress by this and has suffered financial loss.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
- 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X became aware of this issue in in 2019 and complained to the Council about it in September of that year. Mrs X complained to us in November 2021 and so the complaint is made late to us. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to have complained to us sooner and so I cannot see good reason to investigate now, as per paragraph two.
- Failing to declare a pecuniary interest is a criminal matter and therefore best dealt with by the police.
- We cannot achieve the outcome Mrs X seeks as we cannot impose sanctions on councillors.
- For these reasons we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is made late to us and there are not good reasons for us to investigate now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman