Duty to uphold the law : Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

The Ombudsman received a complaint from an Officer (“the Complainant”) of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (“the Council”), that a Member of the Council had failed to observe the Code of Conduct for Members.

It was alleged that during the recent election campaign the Member had removed a political leaflet from a member of the public’s letterbox, replaced it with his own leaflet, and taken the removed item away. The investigation considered whether the Member’s alleged conduct brought the Member and the Council into disrepute.

The Ombudsman obtained information from the Council’s Monitoring Officer, including video footage of the incident. The Council confirmed that whilst the matter had been reported to the Electoral Commission and the Police, it had been established that the matter was not an electoral or Royal Mail offence and both bodies had declined to take any further action.

As a result, the Ombudsman was no longer satisfied that an investigation into the complaint was in the public interest, and it was decided to discontinue the investigation.