Summary: We will not investigate how the Council handled Mrs X’s complaint about a councillor. There is not enough significant injustice to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about how the Council handled her complaint about a councillor.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We will not normally investigate a complaint unless there is good reason to believe that the complainant has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the service provider.
6. This means that we will normally only investigate a complaint where:
• the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the service provider, or
• there are continuous and ongoing instances of a lower level injustice that remain unresolved over a long period of time.
7. Mrs X is unhappy about comments made by a councillor at a Town Council meeting.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. Any injustice experienced is not significant enough to warrant an investigation.
9. Furthermore, the Council achieved a local resolution which was appropriate to address what happened. Mrs X has refused this resolution. An investigation by us would not recommend anything more than the offer already made by the Council.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough significant injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman