The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about councillor conduct as there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council, or of a serious injustice caused to Mr X. Our involvement is therefore not justified.
The complaint
Mr X complained about a councillor’s involvement in the renaming of part of a local highway, to commemorate a deceased political figure. Mr X complained that the councillor did not declare her family relationship to the figure in question and that the project was rushed through due to the councillor’s connections. Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s investigation of his complaint and wants an independent investigation to be carried out into the councillor’s actions. Mr X says he has lost his faith in democracy and has been impacted due to the amount of time he has devoted to pursuing this matter.
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 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), as amended, section 34(B)) We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, 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 conduct complaint in line with its procedure and in consultation with its independent person. It decided the complaint did not merit investigation as there was no indication of a breach of its code of conduct for councillors.
While Mr X is unhappy with the outcome, I have considered how the Council made this decision with reference to its councillor conduct complaint procedure and it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council, were we to investigate. As such, we could not criticise its decision on the complaint.
In addition, while Mr X clearly feels strongly about this matter, I do not consider he is personally impacted to a degree that would warrant our involvement, either by the commemorative naming or the Council’s handling of his complaint. I recognise that Mr X says he has devoted time and energy to pursuing this matter, but this was his own personal choice to do so and not something we would/could hold the Council accountable for.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault or injustice to justify our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman