The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on licensing matters affecting X. This is because X could have appealed this decision to the Magistrates Court. And given only the court could decide on the outcome and say whether the Council’s decision was right or wrong, and we cannot, it was reasonable for X to have used their appeal right.
The complaint
X complained about the Council’s decision not to issue them with a Temporary Event Notice for their business. X said the Council’s decision-making was poor, lacked transparency and relied on historical information to decide to refuse their application.
Ombudsman’s role and powers The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
We will not investigate X’s complaint. This is because a person who is aggrieved by the licencing decision X is affected by, has a right of appeal to the Magistrates Court. And given the courts could make their own decision, after reviewing the evidence, and we could not say the Council’s decision was wrong, it would have been reasonable for X to have used their appeal right.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman