The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss A’s complaint about a damaged food waste bin. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall call Miss A, complains the Council damaged her food waste bin and told her she needed to pay £7.50 for a replacement.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss A complains the Council told her she would need to pay for a replacement food waste bin after hers was damaged. Miss A says the damage was caused by the Council and it should provide a new bin regardless of how old it was.
The Council investigated and concluded the damage was not caused by the collection crew. It explained bins can become damaged due to general wear and tear over time. There is a five year warranty on the food waste bins and its policy states any damage caused after this period would be considered wear and tear. In such cases, the resident will need to pay for a replacement bin at a cost of £7.50. It agreed it would pay for a replacement bin if Miss A could show proof of payment for the bin which showed it was less than 5 years old.
Miss A was unable to confirm the age of the bin as it was already at the property when she moved there in 2021 and there was no date on the bin. The Council confirmed its decision that, in line with its policy, Miss A would need to purchase a replacement bin.
We will not investigate Miss A’s complaint. This is because there is no sign of fault by the Council here as it has decided this matter in line with its policy on replacement bins which is published on its website. We are not an appeal body and it is not our role to question the merits of a council’s decisions, where, as here, there is no sign of fault in the way in which it was reached.
Further to this, even if we had found fault by the council this is not a complaint we would investigate. This is because the matter has not caused Miss A any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant a further investigation by this office. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We have limited public resources and so we must focus these on investigating complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of alleged fault by a body in our jurisdiction.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss A’s complaint because there is no sign of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman