Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council maintains a cemetery. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council treated the grass around her late husband’s headstone with weedkiller, destroying the grass.
2. She says she finds this distressing and wants the Council to return to using a strimmer to cut the grass close to the gravestones.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (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 Mrs X including the Council’s responses to her complaint.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X is upset the Council treated the long grass around her late husband’s headstone with weedkiller instead of strimming it.
7. The Council has advised this is general practice in all its cemeteries as it minimises possible damage to headstones and other items placed on graves. It has agreed to replace the turf around her husband’s headstone as a gesture of goodwill but will not change its approach of using weedkiller in general as it prevents damage from strimmers and lawnmowers.
8. Photographs from Google maps of the cemetery dated 2018 shows signs that weedkiller has been used around the gravestones.
9. I do not dismiss Mrs X’s concerns or the distress she had felt. However, further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome as we cannot dictate to the Council how it maintains its cemeteries.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman