Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that a Councillor and Council officer made incorrect and untrue statements when corresponding with the complainant about a development. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The alleged fault has not caused the complainant a significant personal injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, says a Councillor and a Council officer, made incorrect and untrue statements when corresponding with him about a development.
2. Mr X says the Councillor denied having any knowledge of the previous planning history of the site, when she had in fact been a member of the Planning Committee which approved the original development, had attended a more recent Cabinet meeting where the site was discussed, and had also been copied into his emails. Mr X also says the Council officer was wrong to subsequently say the Councillor had not been actively involved in recent matters, as the officer was aware the Councillor had been actively involved in recent meetings and correspondence.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 an investigation if we decide:

• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I appreciate Mr X is unhappy about the statements made by the Councillor and Council officer. But I do not see that these statements in isolation cause him a significant personal injustice. In reaching this view, I am particularly mindful that Mr X’s associated concerns about the Council’s handling of the public open space at the site, and his attempts to raise issues about the development at a Cabinet meeting, are being considered by the Ombudsman under a separate complaint.
6. With reference to paragraph 2 above, the Ombudsman will therefore not investigate Mr X's complaint about what the Councillor and Council officer said.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the alleged fault has not caused him a significant personal injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman