Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a complaint about a parish councillor. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate now.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to consider his complaint against a parish councillor properly.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant that includes the Council’s responses. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X’s complaint is about what happened at an Annual Parish Meeting in May 2021. Mr X says a parish councillor accused him of peddling fake news at this meeting. And, when he raised a complaint to the Council’s Monitoring Officer, in July 2021, it failed to respond.
6. I will not investigate as the matters giving rise to the complaint have been brought late outside of our usual 12-month period for submitting complaints. And I have seen no good reasons why Mr X could not have brought his complaint earlier.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it has been made late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman