A housing association has been criticised for demanding the keys to a young man's flat the day before his funeral, writes Nigel Hanson.

Simon Dawson, 26, was found dead by the railway tracks at Cholsey, near Wallingford, on October 17, and an inquest into his death has been opened and adjourned.

Despite his family's grief, a member of the Oxford Citizen's Housing Association (OCHA) phoned on October 24 the day before Simon's funeral to ask if he could call to collect the keys to Simon's one-bedroom flat in Cooper's Piece, Wallingford.

Mr Dawson's grandmother, Gladys Sadler, 75, is furious with the housing association for asking for the keys just days after he died.

Mrs Sadler, of Honey Lane, Cholsey, said: "They phoned my daughter and said 'Have you finished with the keys? Can we pick them up tomorrow?'

"Simon's things were still in the flat, and we were all still coming to terms with his death.

"We're all grief-stricken, and then to have them asking for the keys back barely a week after he died I cannot forgive them.

"It was a tragic death and hard enough to come to terms with. I am absolutely furious." She said her grandson, who worked at Fair Mile Hospital, Cholsey, always paid the weekly rent of 60.45 every Friday, without fail.

OCHA's chief executive David Ashmore said: "My initial reaction is we need to give the family an unreserved apology.

We are very sorry for the distress caused to the family."

He said he would be writing to both Mrs Sadler and her daughter. He added that the housing association would review how it could be "more flexible in responding to difficult and sensitive circumstances like this" in future.

He said: "We're not an uncaring organisation."