The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council's handling of a petition as Mr X could have sought a formal review of this.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council failed to properly consider a petition he submitted to it about a travel scheme.
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 it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal (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 Council’s petition scheme explains that a review can be requested of how it responded to a petition, if such a request is made within 28 days of a formal response having been sent to the petition organiser. The Council says a formal response was sent to Mr X but he did not request a review.
The petition scheme explains that a review will be considered by a scrutiny board and if that board considers the Council did not deal with a petition adequately, it may use any of its powers to deal with the matter, including making recommendations to Cabinet.
While I recognise Mr X made a complaint, this was prior to the Council having supplied him with its formal response to the petition. At this point, it is reasonable to have expected Mr X to ask the Council for a review and for this reason, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he had the right to ask the Council to review its handling of the petition and it is reasonable to expect him to have done so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman