London Borough of Sutton (25 007 319)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 23 Sep 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a councillor conduct complaint as Mr X is not impacted from this to a degree that would warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complains two councillors made false statements about a Council owned company which preceded a Council vote to award the company a loan. Mr X is unhappy as he says the company has failed to deliver promises made to him as a customer and to reinvest profits in his local area. Mr X complains the Council refused to investigate his complaint about the councillors’ comments.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council refused to investigate Mr X’s complaint because in its view the allegations, even if proven, would not constitute breaches of the code of conduct for councillors.
- I recognise that Mr X is unhappy about the award of the loan to the company and the service he has received from it, but these are separate matters to the Council’s refusal to investigate his complaint about councillor conduct. I do not consider Mr X is caused a level of injustice from this or from the councillors’ comments themselves, to justify our further involvement. We have limited resources and must direct them to the more serious cases. As such, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a level of injustice from it to justify our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman