Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a councillor complaint as there is insufficient injustice caused to the complainant to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council did not investigate complaints he made about the conduct of two councillors in relation to noise nuisance he is experiencing from dogs barking. Mr X says one councillor failed to take action to stop anti-social dog barking, despite promising him they would do so, and another councillor failed to deal with Mr X’s complaint about this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. I recognise Mr X may be experiencing problems due to early morning dog barking and that this could represent a significant injustice to him. This, however, is something he needs to raise with the Council itself so it can investigate. Individual councillors cannot investigate whether a noise nuisance is occurring nor initiate enforcement action should a nuisance be confirmed. Given the limited involvement councillors could have in investigating this matter, I do not consider that Mr X is caused a significant injustice from how the Council dealt with his councillor conduct complaint. Should Mr X have a separate complaint about the Council’s response to any noise complaints he has made to it, we can assess that as a stand-alone matter

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not caused a level of injustice from it that would warrant our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman