Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s Service Level Agreement with a trust which runs sports and leisure facilities in its area. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, says the Council is failing to act upon breaches of the Service Level Agreement it has with a trust which runs sports and leisure facilities in partnership with the Council. He says there are many health and safety and maintenance issues which are putting customers at risk.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ which we call ‘fault’. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. For a number of years, Mr X has been contacting the Council with his concerns about the running and maintenance of sports and leisure facilities run by a trust in partnership with the Council.
8. Earlier this year the Council looked into issues raised by Mr X but having done so found no case for further action.
9. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and while Mr X may remain dissatisfied with the Council’s response to his complaint, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to him to warrant an investigation. The Council looked into Mr X’s concerns but found no grounds on which to take further action. This is a decision the Council is entitled to take and it is not our role to review the merits of it.
10. In providing information about his complaint, Mr X has referred to events from a number of years ago. However, the restriction highlighted at paragraph 4 applies to them as such matters fall outside our jurisdiction due to the passage of time as we would reasonably have expected them to have been raised with us sooner.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman