North Yorkshire Council (26 006 454)
Category : Other Categories > Councillor conduct and standards
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 09 Sep 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate how the Council handled a councillor conduct complaint as it did not cause the complainant a significant injustice.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains the Council declined to investigate her complaint about a councillor’s involvement in an internal town council matter. Mrs X says this caused her disappointment.
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
- I recognise Mrs X remains unhappy about how her complaint was dealt with, but we will not investigate. This is because I do not consider Mrs X was caused a significant personal injustice from either the conduct matter or the Council’s complaint handling, and as such, our further involvement is not warranted.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because any injustice is not sufficient to justify our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman