Summary: Mrs X complains the Council delayed its response to her request for a memorial bench in her local park. We do not find fault with the Council.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council delayed in its response to her request for a memorial bench in memory of her daughter.
2. During this time the cost increased.
3. Mrs X would like the Council to honour the first price given to her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have considered Mrs X’s complaint and supporting information and have spoken to her about the complaint.
8. I have considered the Council’s response to Mrs X and to my enquiries.
9. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Council’s complaint procedure

10. The Council has a two stage complaints process. On receipt of a formal complaint, the Council aim to provide a written response within 15 working days.
11. This can be progressed to a stage two review within 20 working days of receipt of the stage one response. The Council aim to provide a stage two written response within 15 working days.

What happened

12. In October 2021 Mrs X made an enquiry to the Council about purchasing a memorial bench in her local park.
13. The Council emailed Mrs X 4 days later with a quotation of £1994.40 plus additional costs.
14. Mrs X says she met with an officer from the Council in June or July 2022. In response to our enquiries the Council officer says from memory he recalls meeting her once in December 2022, but before the meeting he had a telephone call with her about the location of the bench.
15. Mrs X says she attended a site visit in December 2022 with an officer from the Council to choose a location for the bench.
16. In response to our enquiries the officer said during the site visit he explained the policy about installing memorial benches and told Mrs X he would have to double check with his manager as the location Mrs X wanted needed an extension to the footpath.
17. After the site visit Mrs X says she was under the impression she would hear back from the officer. She said she did not hear from him so she called him in January 2023 and he told her the financial co-ordinator was on annual leave until the end of the month. She chased this up in February and was told the officer was on a site visit.
18. Mrs X made a complaint on 17 March about the lack of contact and the delay in dealing with her request. The Council responded on 17 April apologising for the delay saying “workload pressure has played a large part in this”. It explained the officer had contacted a contractor for the extra costs involved, and once received the financial co-ordinator would be in touch with her.
19. The officer said he did not hear back from Mrs X until she made her complaint, and “we both agreed there had been lack of communication by both parties”. He called her back and left a voicemail.
20. The financial co-ordinator sent Mrs X the quote, application form and policy document on 24 April. Mrs X responded with some queries over the quote the following day, as it had increased to £2400 plus £600 for extending the footway.
21. On 3 May Mrs X sent a stage two complaint to the Council over the new costs of the bench and complaining she had no response after querying this.
22. The Council sent its stage two response on 30 May saying “there does seem to be a breakdown in your communication”. The Council did not uphold the complaint saying the officer left her a voicemail in January after the site visit in December, and got no response until her complaint in March.
23. It went on to say any increase in price from the original estimate was due to the suppliers change in costs, and the chosen location needs a pathway extension which has an added fee.
24. Mrs X was unhappy with the response so she brought her complaint to the Ombudsman.

Analysis

25. Mrs X complains the complaint responses from the Council were late. The first complaint response was seven days late and the second response was four days late. The policy is the Council “will aim to respond within 15 working days”. Provisionally I do not consider this serious enough to find fault by the Council as the response was only a few days late and it did not cause significant injustice to Mrs X.
26. Mrs X says she met with the officer from the Council in June / July 2022, and the Council officer says he had a phone call with her before the December site visit. There are no records or notes to evidence what happened so I am unable to make a finding on this.
27. Mrs X says she called the Council twice after the site visit, and on the balance of probabilities she did, or she would not have known about the financial co-ordinator being on annual leave or the officer being on a site visit. The officer says he did call Mrs X and left a voicemail for her.
28. The Council said there was a “breakdown in communication” and apologised for the delay in the first complaint response so I do not find fault with the Council, as this does seem to have been the case.
29. I cannot find fault with the Council for delay as the site visit was over a year after it sent Mrs X the original quotation, and it was only after the site visit Mrs X said she wanted to go ahead.
30. Although I understand Mrs X wants the Council to honour the original quotation, it was a quotation and not a final price. It is the supplier’s costs the Council is quoting.

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Final decision

I do not find fault with the Council for delay in dealing with Mrs X’s request.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman