Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to sell a sports stadium. Mr X has not claimed a significant personal injustice and there is not enough evidence the Council’s decision is likely to cause him any, so an investigation is not warranted.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about procedural failings in the Council’s decision to sell a stadium. Mr X says the decision has caused a loss of trust in the Council’s decision-making and governance processes, caused prolonged uncertainty and excluded supporters from the process.
2. Mr X also says the Council did not fully investigate his concerns as part of its complaint handling procedure.
3. Mr X wants the Council to pause the proposed sale and conduct a new consultation on the future of the stadium.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means 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.
8. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern, but where they have not suffered specific personal injustice.
9. Although I recognise the future of the stadium is important to Mr X, I do not consider there has been significant enough personal injustice to warrant the Ombudsman devoting time and public money to investigation. So, we will not investigate Mr X’s complaint.
10. We will not investigate how the Council responded to Mr X’s complaint. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we decide not to investigate the substantive issue.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not claimed a significant personal injustice and there is not enough evidence the Council’s decision is likely to cause him any, so an investigation is not warranted.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman