The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Miss X complained that although she should receive an assisted collection service the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled days, despite collecting her neighbours’ waste. The Council’s the repeated failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections and return her bins to Miss X’s property as part of the assisted collection service is fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X complained that although she should receive an assisted collection service the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled days, despite collecting her neighbours’ waste.
Miss X also complained that when her waste was collected the Council did not routinely return her bins to their collection point and left her neighbours’ bins blocking her drive.
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 Miss X; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; discussed the issues with Miss X; 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
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.
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 should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
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 Miss X states there were issues last year with her bins not being returned and other people’s bins being left blocking her drive way. This caused Miss X stress and physical pain in moving the bins. When Miss X complained to the Council it agreed to provide Miss X with an assisted collection service.
The assisted collection service began in January 2022 but did not resolve the problem. Miss X states the Council also started missing both her household waste and recycling collections.
According to the Council’s records Miss X reported four missed household waste collections, and six missed recycling collections between March and June 2022. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner.
For example, Miss X reported missed household waste collections on 13 and 20 April 2022, which the Council closed on 21 April and 4 May respectively. It is unclear why, if the Council made a collection on 21 April 2022, it did not close both reports that day. Alternatively if the Council had made the next scheduled collection on 27 April 2022, it could have closed the second report that day.
There are similar inconsistencies in the records for missed recycling collections. Miss X reported a missed collection on 1 March 2022 which the Council closed on 15 March 2022. However Miss X also reported the collection scheduled for 15 March 2022 as missed. Had the Council made a collection on 15 March 2002 Miss X would not have needed to report it as missed. Additionally, if the Council returned later that day to collect the missed recycling it could have closed the second report that day. Instead, the Council closed the second report on 30 March 2022. This is after the next scheduled collection on 29 March 2022, which Miss X again reported missed. The Council closed that report on 12 April 2022.
In addition to reporting missed collections Mis X also made a formal complaint. In late March 2022 Miss X complained the Council had not collected her recycling for eight weeks despite collecting her neighbours’ recycling as scheduled. She stated the problem started after the Council agreed to provide an assisted collection service.
The Council’s response apologised for the lack of service. It confirmed a depot manager had spoken to the collection crew and requested a collection as soon as possible. The Council also explained it was experiencing widespread staff shortages throughout Waste Services. Teams from other depots were assisting making collections and may not be familiar with the area. It stated the manager would remind crews Miss X’s address required assisted collections. In addition, the Council confirmed it would monitor Miss X’s next six recycling collections.
Miss X was not satisfied with the Council’s response and asked for her complaint to be reviewed. She was unhappy the Council had missed the last two consecutive household waste collections. Miss X subsequently reported that the crew had emptied her bin, but not returned it to her property. She had struggled to retrieve her bin from outside her neighbours’, five doors down. The following week Miss X reported that the crew had again failed to return her bin correctly and had left bins blocking her drive and car.
The Council reviewed Miss X’s complaint and apologised for the continued poor service. It confirmed it had again asked a depot manager to speak to the collection crew and remind them of Miss X’s assisted collections. It also reiterated it was experiencing operational issues which may have impacted on Miss X’s collections.
As the problems continued, despite the Councill monitoring her collections, Miss X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her concerns.
In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Miss X had assisted collection status.
Since raising her complaint with the Ombudsman, Miss X has moved to a new address, where she no longer receives an assisted collection service. The Council states there are no issues with the household waste or recycling collections at Miss X’s new property.
The Council states the only possible explanation for the repeated missed collections and failure to return her bins at her previous property is that of poor work performance. This should be addressed by the service manager, but it is currently unclear what if any action the manager had taken.
Analysis It is clear from the Council’s records there have been repeated failings in the assisted collection service it has provided to Miss X. These failings amount to fault.
The Council accepts it has missed collections and does not dispute that Miss X’s bins were not returned to her property as they should be once empty. It is unclear why, if details of assisted collections appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and are added to the crew packs, Miss X’s household waste and recycling was missed when the rest of the street was collected.
It is disappointing that even when the collection crews were aware of Miss X’s assisted collections and collected her bins from the front of her property, she still did not receive a proper service. Crews repeatedly left her bins on the street or obstructing her drive rather than returning them to her property in line with the assisted collection service.
The Council states that this was due to poor staff performance. This is clearly a concern particularly as collection crews appear to continue to ignore instructions despite knowing collections are being monitored. We would expect the Council to take action to ensure it retains the ability to control the provision of its waste collection service and raise performance standards.
Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Miss X an injustice. Miss X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected household waste and recycling left at her property over successive weeks. Moving her bins is both physically painful and stressful for Miss X and she has struggled to retrieve her bins when they are not returned. Miss X has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Miss X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections and return her bins to her property as part of the assisted collection service has caused.
The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.
Final decision
The Council’s the repeated failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections and return her bins to Miss X’s property as part of the assisted collection service is fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman