Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because an investigation by this office could not add to the response the Council has already provided via its own investigation of the matter.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council has reneged on a verbal assurance it gave her in a phone call, in December 2022, that it would continue to maintain a memorial bench, in honour of her husband, free of charge.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (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 the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complained to the Council that it had reneged on a verbal assurance it gave her that it would continue to maintain her husband’s memorial bench without charge. The bench was not purchased by Mrs X but by a third party organisation which no longer exists.
7. Mrs X contacted the Council in 2022 after it introduced a policy to charge for maintenance of memorial benches. Mrs X said that whilst nothing was confirmed in writing, an officer told her during a phone call in December 2022, that it would maintain the bench without charge, outside of its policy. However, in mid-2024, Mrs X realised the bench was not being maintained.
8. The Council investigated. It explained it held no record of the telephone call due to the passage of time as call recordings and notes are not retained for longer than 6 months in line with its Data Protection policy. As such, it was unable to verify what was said during the 2022 phone call.
9. It set out the options available to Mrs X, in line with its current memorial bench policy, but also explained that as the bench has already been in place for 26 years it is nearing the end of its useful life. It confirmed the bench will remain in place until such time that it becomes unsafe.
10. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because a further investigation by this office would not be able to add to the response already provided via the Council’s own investigation of the matter. It has already considered the available information. There are no records of the telephone call and nothing was in writing about what was agreed during the call. There is nothing further we could add or consider were we to decide to investigate and we cannot reach a reliable view on what was agreed during the call.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we could not add to the response already provided via the Council’s own investigation of the matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman