The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to Mr X’s complaint about a councillor’s conduct as there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and the injustice caused to Mr X is not sufficient to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained to the Council that he received an email from a councillor after Mr X had posted comments on a social media page about a local road scheme. Mr X feels bullied by the councillor.
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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council considered Mr X’s complaint and concluded that in sending Mr X the email, the councillor did not breach the Council’s code of conduct. I recognise that Mr X disagrees with this view but we cannot question it in the absence of fault in how it was reached. I have not seen such fault.
In addition, while I understand Mr X was upset to receive the email, from our perspective, the injustice caused to Mr X from this is not serious enough to warrant our involvement.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or serious injustice caused to Mr X.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman