Cumbria County Council (22 013 416)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council considered the complainant’s original concerns. The complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is not enough evidence of fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.
The complaint
- The complainant, I shall call Mr X, complains that his original complaint alleging the cover up of an anomaly in a planning application was investigated by the officer whom Mr X says was responsible.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. The Council’s published complaints procedure says:
“…the complaints team will triage to decide the most appropriate approach and level of officer required to meet the customer’s expected outcomes. There may also be occasion when a complaint needs to be investigated independently to the service area involved. This is at the discretion of the Complaints team.”
- The Council decided that it was suitable for the Development Team Manager to consider and respond to Mr X’s complaint about a Council decision made in 2017. The Council’s complaints procedure does not require a complaint to be considered by an independent person.
- Mr X wants his original complaint considered by a someone independent of the Council. Or for the Council to admit an error occurred some years ago. We cannot achieve either of these results.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman