The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council missing some of her paid-for garden waste collections. There has been fault by the Council in it not completing all planned collections and it has offered a partial refund of the fee. There is not enough remaining injustice to Mrs X to warrant us investigating.
The complaint
Mr X paid the Council £74 for a new fortnightly garden waste collection in March 2022. She complains: between March and July, her garden waste was only emptied twice, and only once she had chased the Council; the Council’s bin crew missed a further collection in August, after it said the matter had been resolved; the Council’s offer of an £11 refund is not sufficient.
Mrs X says she has been caused inconvenience because she has had to organise for someone else to remove her garden waste. She wants the Council to refund her the full £74 of her fee.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We recognise bin crews missing Mrs X’s garden waste collections causes her inconvenience from having to organise its removal by someone else. But the Council’s offered refund provides a partial remedy for the injustice caused, and there is not enough remaining injustice to her to justify the use of public money to investigate the complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough remaining injustice caused to Mrs X by the matter to warrant us investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman