Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the way the Council consulted residents about a road user charging scheme. This is because the matter did not cause Mr X significant injustice. The Council has now decided not to proceed with the scheme and we cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome by investigating the consultation process further.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s consultation process for a proposed ‘Sustainable Travel Zone’ (STZ). He says the consultation was not adequately advertised, lacked transparency, failed to provide evidence, was misleading and confusing, did not include footnotes and URLs to documentation referred to and failed to present alternative options to the proposal for an STZ. Mr X would like us to render the consultation null and void.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
5. I appreciate Mr X is unhappy with the way the Council consulted residents about the proposal for an STZ but it has now decided not to proceed with the scheme. We could not therefore say any flaws in the process, if there were any, caused him significant injustice. We also cannot achieve any worthwhile outcome for him now the Council has decided not to implement an STZ.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the consultation process did not cause Mr X significant injustice and we could not achieve any worthwhile outcome for him by investigating the matter further.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman