The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s bin collections over the last four years. Complaints about the bin service from 2018 to early 2021 are late, and there is no good reason to investigate them now. The collections reported as missed since 2021 do not cause Mrs X such significant personal injustice to warrant us investigating.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council has missed bin collections over four years, including three consecutive ones in the last few months.
She says uncollected refuse and containers are blown by the wind, she is concerned food waste might be attracting vermin, and some dog walkers use bins left on the street to dispose of dog faeces.
Mrs X wants the Council to improve the bin service, so it is the same as for other residents.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We expect people to complain to us within 12 months of their becoming aware of the matters complained of. Any bin collection issues from 2018 up to early 2021 are late, and there are no good reasons for us to consider them now. Matters relating to the bin service have moved on since that period. If Mrs X had concerns about the standard of service, she should have raised them at the time. I recognise Mrs X may have mentioned those earlier issues in her complaint only to provide background for the recent events of the last 12 months.
Regarding those recent matters, which are in time, the Council states Mrs X reported three consecutive missed collections in December 2021 and January 2022. It says this was due to a period of disruption to the service caused by HGV driver shortages and the impact of the pandemic on officers’ and contractors’ attendance. I recognise missed collections will have caused inconvenience and annoyance to Mrs X, as described in paragraph 2 above. But those claimed injustices are not sufficiently significant to justify us investigating.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because: complaints about problems with the bin service from 2018 to early 2021 are late and there is no good reason for us to investigate them now; the claimed personal injustice caused to Mrs X by the recent reported missed collections is not sufficiently significant to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman