Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the District Council’s handling of the complainant’s concerns about a Town Council decision on her application for a community grant. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the District Council considered the code of conduct complaint, and we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome for the complainant.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the District Council’s handling of her concerns about a Town Council’s decision on her application for a community grant.

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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 can investigate 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, 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, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. With reference to the first bullet point, we can consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended).
5. However, we cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as Town Councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered:
• information provided by Miss X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
• information about the Town Council meeting where Miss X’s grant application was considered, available on its website.
• information about the District Council’s code of conduct complaint procedure.
• the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. With reference to paragraph 5 above, the Ombudsman has no power to consider any parts of the complaint about the Town Council’s procedures, or its decision on Miss X’s grant application.
8. Similarly, the District Council also correctly explained to Miss X that it is not responsible for procedural matters relating to the Town Council, or the actions of the Town Clerk. The only matter it could consider, was Miss X’s code of conduct complaint against councillors who attended the Town Council meeting where her grant application was considered.
9. I appreciate Miss X might disagree with the District Council’s decision on her code of conduct complaint, but the Ombudsman does not act as an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes the District Council followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether the complainant disagrees with the decision it made.
10. I have seen no evidence of procedural fault in the way the District Council considered Miss X’s code of conduct complaint against the councillors, so we will not investigate this part of the complaint
11. Furthermore, as the Town Council is not a body within our jurisdiction, and as our role is not to make decisions on behalf of organisations even when they are within our jurisdiction, we could not direct the Town Council to approve Miss X’s grant application. So, an investigation by the Ombudsman could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for Miss X.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the District Council responded to her concerns about the Town Council, and we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome for her.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman