The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the date a councillor vacancy was declared as this does not cause the complainant a level of personal injustice that would warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complains the date the Council declared a councillor vacancy was contrary to the law. Mr X wants the Council to apologise to the whole community.
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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)) 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
While I recognise Mr X has strong feelings about this issue, this does not represent a level of personal injustice, from our perspective, that would justify our further involvement.
Mr X seeks an apology for the whole community. We cannot investigate complaints which impact all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because his injustice is not sufficient to justify our further involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman