The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his garden waste on the scheduled day, despite collecting his neighbours’ garden waste. Mr X has had to take the uncollected garden waste to the tip. The Council’s repeated failure to collected Mr X’s garden waste on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his garden waste on the scheduled day, despite collecting his neighbours’ garden waste. Mr X states he has had to take the uncollected garden waste to the tip which inconvenient and has been difficult following recent surgery.
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 Mr X; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; discussed the issues with Mr X; and Mr 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
Garden waste collections The Council runs a fortnightly garden waste collection service for 40 weeks between March and December. The Council charges a fee for this service and it is only available to customers who have subscribed for the service in advance. The terms and conditions for this service state the Council will consider a refund where it has failed to rectify a reported missed collection of garden waste on three consecutive cycles.
The Council asks residents to put their bins out by 5am on collection day, and crews will collect the waste between 5am and 3:30pm.
When a missed collection is reported to the Council, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the collection is complete, the Council closes the report.
What happened here Mr X subscribed to the garden waste service in February 2022 and the Council delivered Mr X’s garden waste bin on 10 March 2022. The Council informs new customers that the collection schedule will be updated the Monday after it has delivered the new bin. This means Mr X should have been added to the collection list by 14 March 2022.
The next scheduled collection from Mr X’s street was 16 March 2022. Mr X complains the Council failed to collect his garden waste but collected his neighbours’. As the Council also missed the next scheduled collection, Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council.
He noted he had not received the stickers to put on the new bin but had been assured his garden waste would still be collected. Mr X had also questioned why the garden waste service did not show on his scheduled collections until 30 March 2022, and even then was not collected. He was unhappy he was not receiving the service he had paid for and had had to make trips to the trip to dispose of the uncollected garden waste.
The Council’s response apologised for the lack of service and explained it was currently experiencing widespread staff shortages throughout Waste Services. While it was still making most collections, the shortages had impacted some rounds. It suggested Mr X leave his bin out as catch up crews were operating.
Mr X disputed the missed collections were due to staff shortages as crews were collecting his neighbours’ garden waste. The Council responded the same day. Its review response was identical to the initial response. Mr X questioned this and asked for the matter to be reviewed again. He also asked his local Councillor for assistance.
The Council responded on 13 April 2022 and apologised for the incorrect information in its previous response. It was addressing this internally with further training. The Council confirmed it was experiencing high levels of disruption with its household collections, but as garden waste is a paid for collection it was making every effort to ensure collections were completed as scheduled.
The Council noted it had delivered Mr X’s bin on 14 March 2022 and that it can take up to two weeks to be added to the crew’s list. During this time Mr X should have received a sticker for his bin. As there had been a delay sending out the stickers the Council had advised the crews to use the list of paid properties to make collections. The Council confirmed Mr X’s address had not been added to the list by the scheduled collection on 16 March 2022 but was listed for the following collection on 30 March 2022. The Council also noted it had collected Mr X’s garden waste at the scheduled collection that morning.
It apologised for the poor service and inconvenience caused but confirmed it would not offer refunds outside the circumstances specified in its terms and conditions for the service.
Mr X remained dissatisfied, particularly as the Council had again failed to collect his garden waste on the next scheduled collection. He considered the matter could have been resolved when he first telephoned the Council if it had properly checked its records to ensure they were up to date and explained when collections would start. He asked the Council to review its position on compensation given the ongoing service failures.
There is no record the Council responded to Mr X’s further complaint or request for compensation. Mr X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint.
In response to my enquiries the Council states that due to workload issues, there was a delay in updating its system and Mr X was not added to the collection list until 18 or 21 March 2022. Mr X’s address did not therefore appear on the garden crew’s collection list for the collection on 16 March 2022.
The Council’s records show that in addition to the missed collection on 16 March 2022, Mr X also reported four other missed collections. The Council suggests the other collections could have been missed as Mr X may have presented his bin late. The Council collects the garden waste from Mr X’s street at around 6:25am. It recommends residents present their bins the night before collection.
Mr X disputes putting is bins out late. He states he always puts his bins out the night before they are due to be collected.
Analysis It is clear from the Council’s records that that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s garden waste. These failings amount to fault.
The initial missed collection was due to a delay in adding Mr X to the collection list. The Council has provided inconsistent information about when Mr X’s address would appear on the collection list. Its standard correspondence to residents states the collection schedule will be updated the Monday after it has delivered the new bin. While the response to my enquiries states it will take place on either the Friday or Monday after the bin is delivered; and in response to Mr X’s complaint it states it can take up to 14 days to update the list.
It is unclear exactly when Mr X’s address was added to the collection list, but this was resolved by the collection scheduled for 30 March 2022. The Council suggests it may have missed this and subsequent collections as Mr X had not presented his bins by the time he crew visited his street. But it has not provided any evidence to support this view, which Mr X disputes. The Council has not monitored Mr X’s collections and there is no record it advised Mr X, when he reported missed collections or when he complained, that he needed to present his bins earlier.
I recognise that as the Council did not miss three consecutive collections Mr X did not meet the threshold for a refund of the fee for the service. However, it is clear that the missed collections did cause Mr X an injustice. The Council missed four of the initial five scheduled collections. And its records show it did not return to collect this waste before the next scheduled collection. This led to an accumulation of garden waste, particularly when consecutive weeks were missed, which Mr X had to take to the tip to dispose of. The errors in the Council’s complaints responses also put Mr X to unnecessary time and trouble in pursuing this matter. In the circumstances I consider the Council should refund the fee Mr X has paid for the garden waste service for 2022.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X for the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular garden waste collections has caused and to reimburse the fee he has paid for the garden waste service in 2022.
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 collected Mr X’s garden waste on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman