Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (24 015 421)
Category : Other Categories > Leisure and culture
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Dec 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s actions at a leisure facility. There is no significant injustice and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by an investigation.
The complaint
- Mrs X complained about how the Council ran a sports class at a leisure facility. She said it was badly organised. Mrs X also complained about how the Council considered her complaint about this. She said she was unhappy with the outcome and wants the Council to apologise.
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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X was unhappy with the way the Council organised and ran a sports class at one of its leisure facilities and she complained about this. The Council replied and explained how it had acted in response. Mrs X disputed the Council had done enough to consider her complaint.
- We will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence the actions of the Council has caused Mrs X a significant personal injustice. We normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the Council.
- Additionally, we would not investigate this complaint because the Council have already provided a response to Mrs X’s complaint and this response appears to be a reasonable one. Consequently, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint because there is no significant injustice and no worthwhile outcome achievable by us investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman