The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about a residents meeting arranged by the Council. This is because her complaint is late and there are not sufficiently good reasons as to why she could not have complained sooner.
The complaint
Ms X complained about an incident at a public residents meeting arranged by the Council in September 2023. Ms X said she experienced racial abuse at the meeting and the Council failed to safeguard her and other attendees.
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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X complained she experienced racial abuse at a residents meeting she attended in September 2023.
Ms X complained to the Council in July 2025. The Council said it would not investigate her complaint as the incident was over 12 months ago.
The law says we cannot investigate complaints where the person has known about the issues they are complaining about for more than 12 months before coming to us, unless there is good reason for the delay.
Ms X said she only recently became aware of new information which is why she has complained now. However, she has known about the issues for over 12 months and I do not think there are sufficiently good reasons as to why Ms X could not come to us sooner. Therefore, we will not investigate her complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman