The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to Mr X’s complaint about councillor conduct. This is because there is insufficient injustice caused to Mr X from his complaint to warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complains about the Council’s decision on his complaint about the conduct of a councillor who asked him to stop speaking at a Council meeting. Mr X complains the Council’s decision contains incorrect information and he wants an apology from the Council for getting it wrong.
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 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))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I have considered the circumstances of Mr X’s conduct complaint and the Council’s handling of it. While I recognise that Mr X feels strongly about what took place, we will not investigate. This is because, in my view, Mr X is not caused sufficient personal loss or harm from either matter to justify our further involvement. It would also not be a good use of our resources to investigate a complaint with the sole aim of achieving an apology.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused sufficient personal injustice from it to warrant our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman