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Waste management Maladministration causing injustice
29 July 2008
Congleton Borough Council consistently failed to collect all of a man’s household waste. The Ombudsman finds the Council’s faults also included failure to respond effectively to the man’s complaints, unreasonable delay in making and communicating a decision on his request for a second wheeled bin, and making no proper assessment of waste generated by his household. A Congleton resident, called ‘Mr H’ in the report, lives in a five-adult household in a rural location. He complained that the Council refused to collect all his non-recyclable household waste and refused to supply him with a second wheeled bin. After the Ombudsman referred the complaint to the Council, it extended its recycling scheme to include Mr H’s home. It also served a notice under Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 setting out how Mr H should put out waste for collection. Although it was clear that Mr H did not qualify for a second wheeled bin under the Council’s policy, it required him to complete a form and then took six months before refusing his request – having made no proper assessment of the volume of waste generated by his household. The Council failed to respond to the Ombudsman’s enquiries about the legal basis for its actions, and gave a materially misleading account of specific advice it had received from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The Ombudsman said: “Parliament has expressly included in legislation the means for councils to enforce Section 46 notices. I have reservations about whether, therefore, a council can legitimately refuse to remove household waste as an alternative means of securing compliance.” She finds maladministration by the Council in:
The Council has apologised to Mr H and supplied him with a second bin for as long as he needs it. In addition, the Ombudsman recommends the Council to:
Date Updated: 21/10/08
are in .pdf format. To view these files you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It can be downloaded below free of charge. Click To Download