Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the service Miss X received when she buried her brother’s ashes as we cannot add to what the Council has already said or change the outcome of the complaint.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the service she received when her brother’s ashes were buried at a Council run crematorium. Miss X says the lack of compassion and dignity shown to her caused her distress. Miss X does not want to see the grounds people involved again, when she visits the cemetery, would like a written apology from all those involved and to be compensated fairly.

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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 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 could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Background

5. Miss X complains that when she attended a Council cemetery to bury her brother’s ashes, they were placed in a plot but on checking the burial paperwork, Miss X discovered that it was not the plot she had purchased. When she told the Council grave digger this, Miss X says he told her to take her brother’s ashes out and he would dig the correct plot. Miss X says that having to remove her brother’s ashes from the plot and watch another grave being dug was extremely distressing and that due to this, her family did not gather for the meal that had been planned for after the burial.
6. Miss X complains that following the incident, it was not reported as it should have been, to management, that day, and that managers did not proactively deal with the matter. Miss X complains that when she was spoken to by managers, they did not deal with the matter sensitively.
7. Miss X complains that while the Council’s complaint responses acknowledged the wrong plot was dug, they did not mention that her brother’s ashes were placed in the incorrect plot and had to be taken out by the family. This caused Miss X further distress.

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My assessment

8. In its complaint responses to Miss X, the Council acknowledged that an incorrect grave had initially been dug. It confirmed the grave digger had been spoken to and would be supervised more closely going forward. It also confirmed that further training and development had been organised for the whole of the grave digging team to try to avoid the same thing happening in future.
9. The Council acknowledged that the incident should have been reported to management at the time and that Miss X should have been offered a meeting to discuss her concerns with managers.
10. In recognition of what went wrong, the Council apologised to Miss X, offered to waive the £240 internment fee, and to install a lasting memorial to her brother in the form of a bench. It explained however that it could not meet her request for the grave digger not to work at the cemetery where the incident took place.
11. I recognise that Miss X was caused distress by Council fault and that she remains dissatisfied, feeling there is no excuse for what happened. However, we will not investigate as we cannot add to what the Council has already said/done. It has apologised to Miss X and taken steps to try to ensure what took place could not happen again. It has also offered to waive the internment fees and to put in place a lasting memorial for Miss X’s brother. From our perspective, this represents a satisfactory remedy while acknowledging, as the Council did, that no remedy can change what took place or erase the distress Miss X experienced.
12. We cannot achieve the other outcomes Miss X seeks. We deal with the Council as an organisation; we cannot require that individual staff members make apologies or ask the Council to change their terms of employment.
13. For these reasons, we will not investigate the complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we cannot add to what the Council has already said/done.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman