Summary: We are issuing this report because the Council failed to provide evidence of compliance with recommendations we made in two cases.
Environmental Services and Public Protection and Regulation – refuse and recycling (20 007 915) In January 2020, the Council agreed to apologise to Mr X for failing to resolve his issues with refuse collections, monitor the collections at his property for at least two months and review its missed collections policy (reference 19 004 573).
Environmental Services and Public Protection and Regulation – noise (20 007 914) In March 2020, the Council agreed to apologise to Mr Y for the injustice caused by the Council’s poor communications about its investigation into his noise nuisance complaint, remind officers of the need to store case-specific files so any member of the team can access them, review noise nuisance cases every four weeks and ensure the deadlines for responding to stage two complaints are met (reference 19 002 308).

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaints and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

The Council has agreed to:

• write to both Mr X and Mr Y to apologise for failing to carry out the action it agreed in our final decisions in January and March 2020;
• pay Mr X and Mr Y £100 each to recognise the frustration and uncertainty caused by its failure to comply with the agreed action following our final decisions in January and March 2020;
• review its revised arrangements for monitoring complaints and ensuring compliance with any future recommendations we make; and
• ensure its waste collections monitoring arrangements are robust to ensure it can provide evidence of monitoring in future cases.

In addition, the Council still needs to satisfy us on an original recommendation we made in Mr X’s case which is outstanding. This is to update and send us a copy of its written missed collections policy.

Ombudsman satisfied with the council's response: 29 June 2021
 

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