West Northamptonshire Council (22 016 804)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Mar 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council’s Monitoring Officer decided not to investigate Mr X’s complaint about a parish councillor. We do not consider Mr X has experienced sufficient personal injustice to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council was wrong when it decided to take no further action over his complaint about a parish councillor.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X covertly recorded a video of a conversation he had with a parish councillor who removed a sign Mr X had put up at the start of a public right of way over his land. He sent this to the Council’s Monitoring Officer and said the councillor had breached the Council’s code of conduct.
- The Monitoring Officer assessed the information provided by Mr X, consulted with the Council’s independent person and decided not to take any further action because of insufficient evidence. Mr X was unhappy with the Monitoring Officer’s decision and complained to the Ombudsman.
- We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we decide the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. While I understand Mr X disagrees with the Monitoring Officer’s decision, I do not consider this causes him a level of injustice that warrants our involvement. Therefore, I do not consider it would be in the public interest for us to investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused significant personal injustice from the Council’s decision not to follow up his complaint about a councillor.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman