The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Miss X complained about regular missed assisted bin collections over the last two years. There was fault causing injustice when the Council regularly failed to empty Miss X’s bins. The Council agreed to provide a remedy for the avoidable distress and frustration its faults caused.
The complaint
Miss X complained about regular missed assisted bin collections over the last two years.
Miss X said the missed collections resulted in health risks due to pests. It also affected her mental health as she felt helpless and upset. She no longer wants to live in the property.
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 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)
How I considered this complaint
As part of the investigation I have considered the following: The complaint and the documents provided by the complainant.
Documents provided by the Council and its comments in response to my enquiries.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
What I found
The Ombudsman’s 2020 report into the Council’s waste collections We issued a report in March 2020 which found fault in six complaints about the Council’s waste collection service. We made multiple recommendations, including changes to the missed collection monitoring process and democratic oversight of the service improvements already put in place by the Council.
Law and guidance Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly, and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
Councils can contract out their waste collection service. When a council commissions another organisation to provide services on its behalf it remains responsible for those services.
Assisted collections The Council offers an assisted bin collection service to anyone who, through age or physical limitation, finds it hard to put their bins out for collection.
The Council will collect the bins from where they are placed and return them to the same location once emptied.
What happened Missed collections The Council put Miss X on assisted bin collections several years ago because of her disability. The Council’s bins crews collect Miss X’s bins from her garden.
Miss X started experiencing missed collections in 2019. She made nine reports over a six-month period (between June and December): two missed collections in June, one in October, three in November, and three in December.
Miss X reported eleven missed collections between January and August 2020.
The Council then put supervisor monitoring in place until September.
Miss X reported another missed collection in October, but the issue then improved.
However, Miss X had to start reporting missed collections again from June 2021. There were six missed collections across June and July. The Council put supervisor monitoring in place again until August. Again, this temporarily improved Miss X’s collections.
Miss X reported a missed collection in October 2021 and the Council put supervisor monitoring in place again in November. There was an improvement until January 2020, when Miss X had to start reporting missed collections again. The bins crews missed three collections in January and then another in February.
The Council put monitoring back in place in February and March.
Complaints Miss X has made several formal complaints about missed assisted collections since October 2019.
At first, the Council said its new collection service had resulted in some disruption, which it apologised for. It explained crews were still familiarising themselves with new routes. It said it would monitor Miss X’s collections with vehicle tracking and with supervisors doing on-site checks.
When Miss X complained in 2020, the Council again said it took time for crews to adjust to new collection rounds. It said waste supervisors were working with bin crews and it would issue a form for the bins crews to complete on Miss X’s next collection day to confirm they had emptied her bins. It apologised for the frustration caused and said she should start to see an improvement.
Later in 2020, when Miss X’s collections did not improve, the Council said a supervisor would make periodic checks on her collections. It also said its waste service experienced significant challenges causing severe disruption.
When the Council missed collections in 2021, it said bin crews could not access Miss X’s street due to inappropriately parked cars. It said bins crews could not pull bins more than 20 metres under health and safety guidelines and this was why they had not emptied Miss X’s bins.
The Council said a supervisor looked at another option to access Miss X’s bins when they visited her in November, but it involved pulling her bins across a grassed area. This could be a hazard in adverse weather.
Miss X brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in November 2021.
Following more missed collections early in 2022, the Council said bin staff had been off work due to COVID-19. It also said there had been a change to Miss X’s regular bin crew. That resulted in some confusion when a neighbour presented a bin with Miss X’s house number on it. The bin crew emptied the bin thinking it Miss X’s. A supervisor arranged for the neighbour’s bin to be replaced. The Council confirmed it monitored Miss X’s last four collections and they were completed.
My investigation Miss X told me her assisted collections have improved since the last period of supervisor monitoring the Council put in place.
Miss X said when she reports missed collections the Council sometimes says it is resolved when it is not. It will then close the case. This causes Miss X frustration.
The Council also sometimes tells Miss X the bins crews cannot access the street. She would like the Council to consider putting up bollards to stop inconsiderate parking.
Miss X said she had to put up with a backlog of waste, which attracts pests, or means she cannot enjoy her garden.
In response to my enquiries, the Council told me there are limited places where residents in Miss X’s area can park. Parking issues worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic as people stayed at home and did not move their cars. Parking issues have improved recently after the Government lifted restrictions.
If collection crews cannot access the area on the first attempt they can sometimes gain access when they try again later in the day. The crews also carry cards about parking which they can leave on cars. Crews have been advised they can collect bins by pulling them over a grassed area – but they can only do this in suitable conditions.
The Council does not consider installing bollards will improve the situation. It said the main issue is with cars blocking the area where the bin wagon turns into the street. Because there are only limited areas where residents can park, introducing parking restrictions will only displace the problem to other areas. In addition, the Council has noticed an improvement since the Government lifted COVID-19 restrictions.
The Council acknowledges some service issues occurred in this case, but it also said there were significant factors linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and its own service restructuring which contributed to those issues.
The Council said it took steps to monitor and rectify missed collections and put in place measures to reduce the problems. It said it is continuing to take steps to improve its service delivery and monitoring.
The Council offered to provide Miss X with a point of contact she can use if issues arise again in future.
Analysis I recognise the Council has faced unprecedented challenges to its waste collection services because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of the pandemic hampered the Council’s attempts to restructure and improve its service following the Ombudsman’s report in 2020. I also acknowledge the layout of Miss X’s street poses unique challenges collecting her waste when there are parked cars. For those reasons, I have decided a further public report is not necessary.
However, while I acknowledge the challenges the Council faced, it still had a statutory duty to collect Miss X’s waste. The missed collections were not one-off events or an occasional failure. It happened over a prolonged period and the Council accepts there were service issues in this case. On the evidence seen, the Council temporarily improved Miss X’s collections when supervisor monitoring was in place but once this stopped the missed collections started again. That amounts to fault.
I found the bin crews usually returned and collected Miss X’s waste. However, she was still put to time and trouble on a regular basis over the last two years reporting the issue. This caused Miss X considerable avoidable frustration and distress. That is her injustice.
Miss X said there were occasions when her neighbours waste was collected but hers was not. I found that, because Miss X receives assisted collections, she was sometimes disproportionately affected by the Council’s service failures.
It is acknowledged the disruption brought about by the pandemic, and service restructuring, meant staff were sometimes unaware which properties received assisted collections. However, the Council’s failure to empty Miss X’s bin left her feeling unfairly disadvantaged. That added to the avoidable frustration and distress Miss X already felt.
The Council now appears to have improved Miss X’s assisted collections. It has also considered an alternate solution when bins crews cannot access Miss X’s street. This may help when conditions allow her bin to be dragged across the grass. I accept the Council’s reasoning for not installing bollards. However, the Council should still take action to remedy the injustice Miss X suffered.
Agreed action
Within four weeks of my final decision, the Council will: Send a written apology to Miss X for its repeated assisted collection failures over the last two years.
Pay Miss X £200 to recognise the avoidable distress and frustration its failures caused.
Final decision
I have completed my investigation. There was fault causing injustice when the Council regularly failed to empty Miss X’s bins.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman