The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Councill’s decision to spend money on a project near Mr X’s home. This is because the Council’s use of taxpayers’ money affects all or most people in the Council’s area. The law does not allow us to investigate these complaints.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has agreed to spend money on a project near his home without considering whether it provides good value for local taxpayers. Mr X says the Council has not consulted local people about the proposal.
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 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)) We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We cannot investigate the Council’s decision to spend money funding the project near Mr X’s home. This is because the alleged injustice is to local taxpayers and so this affects all or most people in the Council’s area.
The direct impact of any development linked to the project will need to be subject to a planning application before building work can start. When considering an application the Council must consider issues such as the appearance of the building and impact on its local surroundings. Local people will be notified about the application and given an opportunity to comment. There is no planning application in place at this stage. We will generally only investigate complaints about planning applications once the Council has reached a decision as we cannot know what, if any, injustice a person has been caused until a decision has been made.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it relates to something which affects all or most people in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman