The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a councillor conduct complaint as it would not be in the public interest to do so given our limited resources.
The complaint
Mr X complained to the Council that a councillor failed to respond to two emails he sent to them about a safety concern regarding a road in his area. Mr X is unhappy that the Council lost his complaint and that it declined to investigate. Mr X says he has been caused depression, anxiety, sleepless nights, and a loss of confidence in the Council.
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 significant injustice to the person who complained (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
The Council apologised to Mr X for the delay in responding to his complaint and as an email he sent to it had been mislaid. The Council advised Mr X it would not proceed with the complaint against the councillor as it did not consider that the councillor’s actions represented a breach of its councillor code of conduct.
I note what Mr X says about how he was impacted. However, we must consider if it would be proportionate for us to investigate given the nature of the issue and as we have limited resources, which must be directed to the most serious cases. Considering these factors, I do not consider it would be in the public interest to investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it would not be in the public interest to do so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman