COUNCILLOR Anna Semlyen may be a tyro, but she has already adopted the council dictum that the way to deal with an embarrassing question is to ignore it (Letters July 1 and 6).

When the Ombudsman’s office admitted to me that the Ombudsman cannot consider complaints from volunteers, it was accepted that City of York Council’s publicity was misleading.

A letter was sent to Kersten England with the following advice: “I note that the information on the council website says that the Ombudsman will investigate any sort of complaint against the council. The ombudsman does place some restrictions on what she can investigate. The council might wish to consider rewording the information on the website.”

The council website is not Kersten England’s personal blog. The posting of misleading information reflects on us all.

So far, the Ombudsman’s advice has been ignored.

If the Ombudsman’s advice can thus be held in contempt, what hope is there of justice for successful complainants?

William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.