The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mr X complained the Council have repeatedly failed to return his bins in accordance with its assisted waste collection service. Mr X is disabled and has difficulty moving his bins himself. Mr X says the Council’s failure to return his bins often prevents access to and from his drive. Based on the information available, I have found fault in the Council’s repeated failure to return Mr X’s bins to their collection point. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice, and the Council have agreed to our proposed recommendations.
The complaint
Mr X is disabled, in a powered wheelchair and receives an assisted waste collection service. He complains the Council's contractors have failed to return his bins to the collection point after they have been emptied. Mr X complained about a similar issue in 2019 and says the issues have since resumed. Mr X struggles to get the bins back to his property due to his disability, and failure to return his bins often prevents access to and from his drive. Mr X would like the Council to return his bins to their collection point in accordance with the assisted waste collection service.
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) 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
I spoke with Mr X and also considered the complaint documents he provided. I made enquiries with the Council and considered its comments and the documents it sent. I considered comments by Mr X and the Council in response to my draft decision.
What I found
Refuse and recycling collections The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council's policy states its contractor will collect and return containers from an agreed point within the boundary of each property.
Background
The Council provide Mr X with an assisted waste collection of his bins. This means the workers collect and return Mr X's bins from and to their collection point.
Mr X has had problems for many years with bins not returned to the collection point. Mr X previously complained in 2019 that the Council failed to return his bins in accordance with its assisted waste collection service. We upheld Mr X's complaint and advised the Council to monitor collections at Mr X's property for a period of 3 months. We also advised the Council to provide a single point of contact for Mr X should any further issues regarding refuse collection occur.
What happened here Mr X made reports to the Council on several occasions about his bins not being returned to the collection point.
Mr X first reported his bins not being returned in August 2021. The Council's Waste Manager reported the incident to its contractor. Following this report, the Waste Manager checked on the collections on two separate occasions in August and September 2021.
Mr X reported his bins not being returned again in October 2021. On this occasion, the contractor informed the Council that one of the loaders had been replaced on the round. The contractor also informed the Council that despite this, the other staff members on the round were well aware of issues concerning collections at Mr X's property.
Later in October 2021, the Council advised its contractor to permanently add Mr X to its 'hot-spot' list. This is a monitoring process that highlights the property to the crew and requires them to notify the Council of any problems with a collection.
Mr X reported his bins not being returned again in January 2022. Following a discussion with the Council's contractor, the Waste Manager informed Mr X that due to staff absence, there was a temporary crew servicing his property which led to the missed collection. The Waste Manager requested the contractor return to the property to return the bins to their collection point. When the contractor returned, it returned the bins to the incorrect location.
After the reported missed collection in January 2022, the Waste Manager visited Mr X at his property where he took pictures of the collection point which were provided to the crew that services Mr X's property.
Mr X says that he was unable to reach his point of contact as they had left employment at the Council. Mr X was in contact with the Waste Manager, who advised him to use the standard contact details to report missed collections or the Council's waste email address for more urgent issues.
Analysis The Council's repeated failure to return Mr X's bins to the collection point in line with its assisted waste collection service amounts to fault. It is not acceptable that the Council are not delivering its assisted waste collection service to Mr X as it should. These issues are compounded by the fact the Ombudsman investigated similar matters in 2019.
The Council have been aware of the issue since 2019, but the issues have continued. The Council have assured Mr X it has spoken to crew members and that his bins would be returned to the collection point, but this has not happened.
Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Mr X a injustice. Mr X is disabled and has difficulty moving the bins himself. When the Council does not return Mr X's bins to the collection point, they are often left in a position that prevents access to and from his drive. This is not only time consuming and inconvenient, but given Mr X's disabilities, is physically difficult also.
This is Mr X's second complaint to our service. On this occasion, the issues have been present for approximately 6 months. In this time, the Council have: Carried out spot checks on two separate occasions.
Placed Mr X's property on its permanent monitoring list.
Carried out a site visit to Mr X's property and took photographs for its crew.
Ensured the crew servicing Mr X's property receives a reminder from one of the contractor's supervisors on the morning of each collection.
On occasion, instructed the crew to return to Mr X's property to return his bins to the collection point.
Increased internal monitoring of its routing system. The Council reports usage has improved from 75% to 90%.
The Council have taken clear steps to resolve the matter, however they have not been entirely successful given evidence of the issues continuing.
Mr X was added to the Council's 'hot-spot' list permanently in October 2021. The Council have advised that the crew servicing Mr X's property have not reported any problems, despite a report made by Mr X in January 2022 about the failure to return his bins. This would suggest the monitoring currently in place is flawed.
On two of the three occasions that Mr X reported his bins not being returned to their collection point, there have been staff changes to the crew. This suggests a flaw in how staff are informed about assisted waste collection at Mr X's property.
Mr X's previous point of contact left employment with the Council and a new contact was not assigned to him. The Council provided Mr X with details of its general mailbox. It was not initially clear why the Council went back on the Ombudsman's recommendation. However, its general mailbox offers greater resilience and enables any issues raised by Mr X to be picked up in the event of staff absence or any internal employee changes.
Recommended action To acknowledge the impact on Mr X and to prevent further problems, the Council have agreed to: Apologise to Mr X and pay him an amount of £200 in recognition of the inconvenience and difficulties the repeated failure to return his bins has caused. This amount is also in recognition of the time and trouble incurred in having to make a complaint for a second time.
Explain what it will do to improve how it monitors properties on its monitoring list, it should ensure the monitoring is both meaningful and proactive. The monitoring should at least record whether any required actions at a property have or have not been successfully completed.
The Council should complete actions a-b within one month of the Ombudsman's final decision. The Council should evidence its compliance to the Ombudsman.
Final decision
I have completed my investigation on the basis the Council's repeated failure to return Mr X's bins to their collection point amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman