The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about missed bin collections and emptied bins being left on his driveway after a collection. The matters complained of do not cause sufficient significant personal injustice to him to warrant us investigating.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council’s bin crews: failed to collect his general waste and recycling over several weeks; left emptied bins on his driveway after a collection.
Mr X says his waste and recycling piled up, causing domestic disturbance through grief and hassle. He wants the Council to acknowledge and not deny its failings, apologise and improve its bin service.
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 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 continue an investigation if we decide: any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; 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 from Mr X, online maps and information, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X says the Council missed several general and recycling waste collections earlier in the year from his property. The Council accepts the service was disrupted. It says this was because long stretches of the roads serving Mr X’s property were closed for maintenance, preventing and restricting access to bin lorries. Officers said bin lorry drivers needed to be satisfied they could turn around if required and not get stuck where road access was restricted. They could not guarantee the use of a smaller lorry on Mr X’s round because that lorry had a scheduled round of its own. Officers advised Mr X crews would take uncollected waste once the roads returned to normal.
Even if we were to find the Council’s bin service involved fault, we will not investigate. We recognise the missed collections caused Mr X annoyance and inconvenience from having to retain some of his waste and manage this until the next collections. But the impacts of the missed collections over the time involved did not cause him such significant personal injustice to justify us investigating.
There is dispute between the Council and Mr X on whether bin crews left emptied bins across Mr X’s driveway. Even if we were to determine the bins were left how Mr X describes, we will not investigate. It would have been annoying for Mr X to find the bins on his driveway and have to move them. But the impacts on him from such an incident on their own, and when taken together with the impacts of the missed collections, do not cause sufficient significant personal injustice to warrant an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matters complained of do not cause sufficient significant personal injustice to him to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman