The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to cancel a meeting. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault with the Council’s decision.
The complaint
X complains about the Council’s decision to cancel a meeting it had arranged to discuss a planning enforcement matter. X also complains about how the Council dealt with their complaint about this matter.
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)) If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council arranged a meeting to discuss an ongoing planning enforcement matter. Prior to the meeting X submitted a pre-action protocol letter, in which X challenged the Council’s planning enforcement action and sought significant compensation.
The Council wrote to X to say it was cancelling its meeting as X’s pre-action protocol letter would be responded to by its legal department instead. It said that it would later decide if a meeting with X was necessary or if it would instead proceed with formal enforcement action.
I will not investigate X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault with the Council’s decision to cancel the meeting. It fully explained and justified its reasons. In the absence of fault, we cannot question that decision.
It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman