The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mrs X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling since February 2022. This has led to an accumulation of waste which is unsightly and attracts vermin and foxes. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling since February 2022. Mrs X states that as collections for the whole street are missed there is an accumulation of waste which is unsightly and attracts vermin and foxes.
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
As part of the investigation, I have: considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mrs X; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; Mrs X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
What I found
Refuse and recycling collections 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.
The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.
What happened here In 2019 Mrs X complained to us about the Council’s repeated failure to collect the recycling from properties on her street despite routinely collecting it from neighbouring streets. The Council identified the narrowness of Mrs X’s street was an issue and moved the recycling collections to a round using a narrower vehicle. This improved the service and Mrs X started to receive regular recycling collections in late 2019.
Mrs X states problems with waste collections began again in early 2022. She complains the Council stopped collecting the recycling from her street in February 2022 and there have also been missed household waste collections.
The Council’s records show Mrs X reported four missed household collections and three missed recycling collections between February and June 2022. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. But the dates are not consistent and suggest delays in collecting the waste and that other collections were missed.
For example, Mrs X reported missed household waste collections on 8 and 22 February 2022 and the Council closed these reports on 28 February and 10 March 2022 respectively. It is unclear why, if the Council made the collection scheduled for 15 February 2022, it did not close the first report that day. Alternatively, if the Council made an additional collection on 28 February 2022, it could have closed both reports that day.
Mrs X also reported a missed collection on 1 March 2022. It is unlikely this would have been necessary if the Council had collected her household waste the previous day. The Council did not close this report until 29 March 2022, which again suggests the next scheduled collection was missed.
There are similar discrepancies in the Council’s records for missed recycling collections. Mrs X reported missed collections on 15 February and 1 March 2022, which the Council closed on 9 and 20 March 2022 respectively. Again, if the Council made an additional on 9 March 2022, it is unclear why it did not close both reports that day. These dates suggest the Council also missed the collection scheduled for 15 March 2022. If it had made this collection, it could have closed the second report that day.
Mrs X also made a formal complaint in February 2022 about the missed household waste and recycling collections and asked for the waste to be collected as soon as possible. The Council’s response apologised for the inconvenience and poor standard of service. It states the Council had experienced some localised disruption to collection services due to ongoing challenges and issues in managing COVID-19 and seasonal sickness across the workforce. The Council stated that where possible crews were covering dropped work and it was trying to bring in other drivers to help but there was a national shortage of HGV drivers.
Mrs X was disappointed with the Council’s response and asserted the Council had sufficient staff to operate the service as waste was collected from the neighbouring streets. It was just Mrs X’s street that was not collected.
As the service did not improve and further collections were missed Mrs X asked the Council to review her complaint. She also asked the Council to collect the missed household waste and recycling as soon as possible as it was attracting rats. The Council reiterated it was experiencing operational difficulties but was trying to ensure there were more regular collections and that the service improved. It suggested that where a whole road was missed residents leave the bins out and the Council would try to catch up.
In response to my enquiries the Council has also identified staff sickness and shortages, the national shortage of HGV drivers and vehicle availability as factors impacting on waste collections. It also states that collections from Mrs X’s street are carried out by narrower alley cat vehicles and there are fewer of these vehicles than standard vehicles. The Council states these vehicles can occasionally be off the road for repair/ service or an MOT.
Analysis The Council’s repeated failure to collect the household waste and recycling from Mrs X’s street amounts to fault.
The Council accepts it has missed collections, but I do not consider its records of Mrs X’s reported missed collections to be a reliable indicator of the extent of the problem. Given the inconsistencies in the Council’s records I consider it likely that additional collections were missed. I note Mrs X’s complaint correspondence refers to a missed collection not included in the Council’s list. Other residents on Mrs X’s street also identify other missed collections.
I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council responded to Mr X’s complaints. I recognise the Council may have had operational difficulties and staffing shortages, but that does not necessarily explain Mrs X’s missed collections. There appear to be collection crews available to collect Mrs X’s household waste and recycling as they visit neighbouring streets and collect their waste as scheduled. The generic nature of the Council’s responses suggests the Council had not properly investigated Mrs X’s complaint.
Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mrs X an injustice. Mrs X has again had to find ways to manage the uncollected household waste and recycling left at her property. As collections are missed for the whole street, the accumulated waste means the area looks untidy, attracts rodents and causes unpleasant smells. Mrs X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £150 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections has caused.
The Council has also agreed to arrange to monitor Mrs X’s household waste and recycling collections for eight weeks to identify and issues with the collection service and to ensure the collections are carried out properly.
The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.
Final decision
The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman