South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council (23 016 832)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 11 Mar 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about strike action which is affecting bin collections. This is because the law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that affect most of the residents in a council’s area.
The complaint
- Mr X complaints that the Council failed to collect his bins for several weeks. This was due to ongoing strike action by refuse workers. Mr X wants the Council to start bin collections again.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is about a matter that affects most of the residents in the Council’s area. This places the matter out of our jurisdiction as referenced in paragraph 3.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is about a matter that affects most of the residents in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman