Basildon Borough Council (21 007 841)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council told councillors not to express views on the emerging Local Plan, and asked a community group not to seek councillors’ views. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. It is reasonable to expect the group to have contacted us sooner.
The complaint
- The complainant, a community pressure group (the Group), says the Council was wrong to tell councillors in 2015 and 2017 not to express their views on the emerging Local Plan, and should not have asked the Group to refrain from contacting councillors for their views in 2017. The Group says the Council’s actions affected local democracy, as it disempowered the councillors they were hoping to influence.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered the information provided by the Group and our Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Group corresponded with Council about its concerns in 2017, but did not contact us until August 2021. The complaint to the Ombudsman is therefore late. The Group says it has only recently become aware of the option to approach us.
- But the Ombudsman has been existence for over 40 years, and information about us is available on the internet, including on the Council’s website. And if the Group had submitted a formal complaint to the Council in 2017, it would have been signposted to us at the end of the Council’s complaints process.
- I consider it reasonable to expect the Group to have complained to us sooner, so I have not exercised discretion to consider this late complaint now.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint because it is reasonable to expect the Group to have complained to us sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman