The Ombudsman received a complaint that an individual who was a member (“the Member”) of both Saundersfoot Community Council (“the Community Council”) and Pembrokeshire County Council (“the Council”) may have breached the Code of Conduct. It was alleged that the Member inappropriately contacted a senior staff member at the County Council to raise concerns about the appointment of an individual as permanent Clerk to the Community Council, on the basis that the individual already worked for the County Council. Whilst neither the County Council nor Community Council objected to the individual undertaking both roles, it was suggested by the Complainant that the staff member was unhappy about this contact having been made and decided to refuse the Clerk role.
Soon after the investigation commenced, we were informed by the Complainant that she wished to withdraw her complaint. In determining whether it would be in the public interest to continue with the investigation, a number of factors were considered, specifically the complainant’s wishes, that the individual himself had not complained and no concerns had been raised by any relevant staff members at the County Council or the wider public. While the Member’s actions may have influenced the individual to make the decision to reject the role, they did not result in any direct detriment to him (i.e. his substantive role at the County Council was not negatively impacted). The decision to reject the Clerk role was one he was entitled to take. The impact therefore was limited primarily to the inconvenience and cost to the Community Council in undertaking a further recruitment exercise, which, while disruptive, we did not consider to be, in itself, sufficiently detrimental, or in the public interest, to justify the continuation of an investigation.
In view of this, I considered that it would not be proportionate or in the public interest to investigate the matter further and it was decided to discontinue the investigation.