A reader’s complaint about a weekly newspaper’s decision not to publish research he had conducted has been thrown out by the press watchdog.

The Surrey Comet has been absolved of any wrongdoing by the Independent Press Standards Organisation after Derek Moss complained that it did not include numerous documents he had sent to one of its journalists in a story.

The complaint by Mr Moss came after the Comet reported in September last year that a Kingston Council committee had been asked to approve recommendations to cancel a Community Benefit Society previously created to “help homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless into housing” by, among other things, “letting out homes needing revamping”.

The story prompted him to contact a Comet reporter by email with “evidence” he had compiled himself about the issue including responses to Freedom of Information requests, council minutes, and his own research into the CBS plans.

But, after he did not receive a response and the Comet published a follow-up story, Mr Moss complained to IPSO under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, alleging numerous inaccuracies in the paper’s coverage of the subject.

In his complaint, he claimed the CBS would not involve “letting out homes needing revamping, which have become available on council estates”, as reported in the Comet’s initial story, saying instead they would be let out as temporary accommodation regardless of whether they needed “revamping”.

He added the follow-up story on the subject did not take into account the numerous documents he had sent to the journalist.

Denying any breach of Code, the Comet did not accept that either of the stories were significantly inaccurate, distorted, or misleading.

It said a 2018 report had set out the purpose and charitable objective of the proposed CBS, noting it would “include arrangements for the provision of temporary accommodation resulting from the regeneration of Kingston Council Estates and provision of funding for advance rent/deposit to help secure private rented accommodation”.

The Comet believed its stories were an accurate representation of the contents of both the 2022 meeting and report, as well as the original 2018 report setting out plans for the CBS.

IPSO noted that, generally, content in newspapers is presented in a way which would be understood by a general reader without specialist knowledge and found that simplifying the phrase “the provision of temporary accommodation resulting from the regeneration of Kingston Council Estates” to “letting out homes needing revamping, which have become available on council estates” was a plain-English characterisation of the specialist terminology used in the council report.

It further ruled newspapers have the right to choose which pieces of information they publish, as long as this does not lead to a breach of the Code, and did not find the omission of the research provided by Mr Moss to be significantly inaccurate, misleading, or distorted.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.