Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (25 020 499)
Category : Other Categories > Leisure and culture
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 25 Mar 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to maintain a local facility. This is because an investigation would be unlikely to find fault with the Council’s actions and Mr X has not sustained a personal injustice due to this matter.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council failed to maintain a local facility and has not responded to his complaint in line with its timescales.
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:
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained the Council failed to maintain and reopen a local facility.
- The Council explained that there was not statutory requirement for it to do so but that it had consulted with several local groups and was in the process of considering how to restore it.
- Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s actions, he is also unhappy with the length of time taken to respond to his complaint. There is no evidence of fault in the Council’s decision making or actions. It is currently considering how to move forward; this is what we would expect it to do. An investigation would be unlikely to find fault with the Council’s actions and there is no evidence of this situation causing Mr X a personal injustice.
- The Ombudsman does not investigate a Council’s complaint handling if we are not investigating the substantive issues.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation would be unlikely to find fault with the Council’s action and Mr X has not experienced a personal injustice due to this matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman