London Borough of Ealing (25 013 830)
Category : Transport and highways > Parking and other penalties
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 27 Feb 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mr Y’s concerns about an officer’s conduct. This is because there is no evidence that Mr Y has suffered significant injustice because of the alleged fault.
The complaint
- Mr Y complains that the Council failed to properly investigate the conduct of one of its officers. Mr Y says the officer appeared to act unprofessionally and unsafely whilst on duty.
- Mr Y feels that the Council’s lack of accountability undermines public trust, which has caused him to feel stressed and frustrated.
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:
- 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 Y and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr Y says that he witnessed a Council officer acting unprofessionally and unsafely whilst on duty. Mr Y contacted the Council about this.
- The Council say that the outcome of its investigation into the officer’s conduct was not conclusive of any valid allegation.
- Mr Y feels that the Council’s response was not good enough and the officer’s conduct should be formally investigated. However, there is no evidence that Mr Y has suffered significant personal injustice because of the issues complained about.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr Y’s complaint because there is no evidence of him suffering significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman