Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council sought to manipulate local elections through a newspaper advertisement and by opening a building site up to the public for one day during the purdah period. Mr X is not caused a significant, personal injustice from his complaints and the Ombudsman’s involvement is not therefore warranted.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains the Council placed an advertisement in a local newspaper which was intended to influence voters in the local elections. Mr X also complains the Council opened a building site to the public for one day during the purdah period. Again, with the intention of influencing the electorate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint.

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What I found

5. Mr X complains the Council placed an advertisement in a local paper which was intended to influence voters in the local elections. Mr X says that the money spent on this could have been spent elsewhere such as on repairing potholes.
6. Mr X says the Council has faced criticism due to slow progress on town centre regeneration work. Mr X complains the Council ceased work for a day when it opened the building site to the public during the purdah period. Mr X says the Council did this to show the electorate that the regeneration work was taking shape, despite it being behind schedule.

Analysis

7. Mr X is not caused any distinct or significant personal injustice from the newspaper advertisement. If Mr X’s injustice relates to Council spending, then the complaint is outside our legal remit as this affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
8. Mr X is not caused any significant, personal injustice from his complaint relating to the regeneration works.
9. For these reasons, we will not therefore investigate.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate as Mr X is not caused a significant personal injustice from his complaints.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman