the Council repeatedly failed to collect his waste and recycling. Mr B says this caused him inconvenience and frustration. The Council was at fault for failing to take action to resolve the problem with the waste collection route and not monitoring Mr B’s waste and recycling collections when it said it would do so. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice to Mr B.
The complaint
Mr B complained the Council’s waste contractors repeatedly failed to collect his waste and recycling. Mr B said this caused him inconvenience and frustration.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended) We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended) If we are satisfied with a council’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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered: Mr B’s complaint and the information he provided; documents supplied by the Council; relevant legislation and guidelines; and the Council’s policies and procedures.
Mr B and the Council commented on a draft decision. I considered their comments before making my final decision.
What I found
Legislation and guidance Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly, and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
This Council's practice is to make weekly household waste and recycling collections and fortnightly garden waste collections.
Individual households can report a missed collection to the Council online from the day after their collection was due. If all the bins on a road are missed, the Council will normally return to collect them within 2 working days. Individual missed collections will be collected on the next bin collection day.
Drivers will only take waste vehicles down a road if they decide it's safe to do so without putting other road users, property or staff at risk.
The Council has a two-stage complaint procedure.
Stage one: a member of staff from the service complained about the complaint will investigate the complaint within 10 working days by.
Stage two: A senior officer in the complaints team will review the complaint and, if an investigation is needed, it will be completed within 20 working days.
What happened This chronology includes key events in this case and does not cover everything that happened.
In May 2021, Mr B complained about 13 missed waste and recycling collections in the financial year 2020/21 and asked for a refund or reduction in his council tax.
The Council responded at stage one within 10 days of receiving the complaint. It apologised for any inconvenience the strike action caused. It said it could not provide a refund or discount in his council tax.
Mr B gave the Council more information about his collections. He explained because of repeated missed collections he had to pile black bags on top of his bins and animals ripped them open and scattered rubbish. He advised the Council said it would collect his bin on the next scheduled collection but closed his report without this happening.
Mr B asked the Council for a stage two response. He stated the missed collections he reported were all before the strike. He said he was paying 100% of his council tax but only receiving 75% of his waste and recycling collections. He asked for a refund or a discount.
The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint at stage two in June 2021, within 20 days of the request. It explained when it referred to strike action, it meant it would raise the missed collections with the crew when they returned from being on strike, not that his missed collections were the result of strike action. It said it had not found any reports of Mr B’s waste or recycling collections being missed on the dates he stated. It advised because there were no obvious patterns to explain why his collections were missed, the service would monitor his collections for a month to try to resolve the issue. The Council told Mr B the Council Tax regulations did not allow for a refund or discount in any circumstances. The Council signposted him to the Ombudsman.
In response to enquiries, the Council advised: the access road to Mr B’s property is sometimes blocked by parked cars and the waste vehicle cannot pass. It said residents had started to leave their bins at the end of the access road for collection. It explained when residents did this, the waste collection crew could not identify which bin belonged to each property and therefore, whether a collection was missed.
the crew reported the road was blocked on five occasions resulting in non-collection. On one of these occasions the crew returned later the same day when the road was cleared. On one other, the crew returned three days later when the road was cleared.
it had a record of Mr B reporting four missed collections.
because of staff shortages because of COVID-19 no monitoring had taken place.
Analysis The Council was aware there were problems with the waste vehicle accessing Mr B’s road to collect waste. The Council should have taken action to resolve this matter when it first arose, not doing so was fault.
In the Council’s stage two response, it said it would monitor Mr B’s waste collection. It did not do this, which was fault.
Because of the Council’s fault, Mr B’s waste and recycling collection issue has not been resolved and Mr B received a poor service.
Agreed action
Within one month of the final decision, the Council will: Pay Mr B £100 for the time, trouble and inconvenience caused by the Council’s faults.
Begin monitoring Mr B’s waste and recycling collections. This should be undertaken for a month and extended if problems are found.
Work with the resident’s that live in Mr B’s road to find a solution to the road being blocked on waste and recycling collection days.
The Council should provide the Ombudsman with evidence these actions have been completed.
Final decision
I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr B’s complaint. Mr B was caused an injustice by the actions of the Council. The Council has agreed to take action to remedy that injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman