Summary: We will not investigate how the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint about a parish council as he is not caused a significant injustice from the alleged Council fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained to the Council that a parish council allowed inappropriate comments about him to remain on its social media. Mr X says this caused him distress, anxiety, and reputational harm. Mr X complains the Council failed to investigate what he says were governance failures of the parish council. Mr X wants the Council to admit it failed to properly deal with his complaint, an apology and financial compensation.

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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 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 alleged fault has not caused significant injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We will not investigate the Council’s response to Mr X’s complaint as I do not consider he is caused a serious injustice from this. The substantive injustice to Mr X arises from the alleged fault by the parish council. The Council has no authority over the parish council and could not have directed it to remove the posts in question or imposed sanctions in respect of the parish council’s governance. I do not consider therefore that any alleged fault by the Council in its complaint handling affected Mr X significantly, as the outcomes achievable from this were minimal. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases. I do not consider this to be such a case.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a level of injustice from the alleged Council fault to warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman