The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council handled a complaint about a councillor’s behaviour. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
Ms X complained about the way the Council handled her complaint about a councillor’s conduct. Ms X says that the Councillor expressed their views relating to a neighbour dispute during a telephone call, and believes the Council incorrectly decided not to investigate this.
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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether a complainant disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
The Council’s deputy monitoring officer considered Ms X’s complaint. They considered evidence from Ms X, consulted an independent person, and told the councillor of the complaint. The deputy monitoring officer decided the councillor was acting as a member of the public and so there had been no breach of the member code of conduct.
Ms X disagrees with the decision made by the monitoring officer. But there is not enough evidence of fault in how they considered Ms X’s complaint to warrant us investigating.
Ms X also complained the Council will not investigate the dispute with her neighbour. That is a civil matter and so we would not criticise the Council for taking this position.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman