Amber Valley Borough Council (24 019 656)

Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 14 Apr 2025

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a member conduct complaint as the matter is ongoing.

The complaint

  1. Mr X complains about the Council's handling of a complaint made about his conduct as a councillor, including about delay. Mr X says this has caused him anxiety and upset.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We 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. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation at this stage (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

  1. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
  2. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

  1. The Council received two complaints about Mr X’s conduct as a councillor a few months apart in 2024. The Council decided to deal with the two complaints together and has told me that its final report on the matter will be ready soon.
  2. I recognise Mr X is unhappy about how this has been handled but given the assurance from the Council that it is due to reach a conclusion, I do not consider it would be a good use of our limited resources to investigate at this point. Plus, as no conclusion has yet been reached, it is unlikely we could carry out any meaningful investigation at this stage. It is open to Mr X to complain to us again if he remains unhappy after the conclusion of the complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

  1. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter is ongoing.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

Print this page

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings