Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his complaints concerning councillors. This is because we will not be able to add anything more to the Council’s investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that the Council did not address his concerns about councillors fairly. And he says his subsequent complaint about the poor customer service he received was not dealt with properly too.
2. Mr X says he has been caused inconvenience and frustration. He would like the Ombudsman to now investigate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant which includes the Council’s responses.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Councillor Code of Conduct

6. The Localism Act 2011 says councils must have a Code of Conduct for elected councillors. They must also have a process in place to consider allegations that councillors have not complied with the Code. It is for a council to decide which allegations to investigate and how to do so after seeking the views of an ‘independent person’ allowed for under this process.
7. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body for complaints about the conduct of councillors. Our role is to investigate whether councils followed the correct procedure to decide whether they should investigate such complaints in detail. Providing councils correctly follow the required decision-making procedure, we cannot criticise that decision.
8. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to investigate if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the council.
9. In this case the Council recognises there was delay by the Monitoring Officer in dealing with Mr X’s complaint about councillors (made on 1 April 2021). Mr X did not receive a response until 25 June 2021 which the Council found exceeded the usual 30-day deadline for dealing with complaints against councillors. The Council apologises and says it appreciates Mr X’s frustration.
10. However, it rejects Mr X’s complaint that the councillor complaint was not dealt with properly. It explains that his complaint simply did not meet its tests for investigation and adds that this decision was made after consulting the Independent Person. It also reminded Mr X there was no right of appeal against this decision under the complaints against councillors’ procedure.
11. It is unfortunate the Monitoring Officer advised Mr X that they had ‘more pressing matters’ requiring their attention which possibly has contributed to Mr X’s sense of frustration.
12. However, there is nothing to be gained now by the Ombudsman reinvestigating Mr X’s complaint. The Council’s response shows it has had regard for Mr X’s concerns and also its procedural requirements. And it has already apologised for the delay.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot add anything more to the Council’s investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman