Summary: Mrs D complained the Council had failed to collect her household waste on numerous occasions and to properly maintain streets in her area since May 2022. We found the Council had failed to adhere to its waste collection practices and its street cleaning in Mrs D’s area did not meet the standards the Council had set. The Council agreed to apologise to Mrs D, make payment to acknowledge the injustice this caused her, and review its services to make improvements.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs D, complained about Council’s failure to adequately address her concerns about:
• repeated missed household waste collections;
• rubbish bags, littering and fly tipping left on streets in the area where she lives which causes the presence of vermin and foxes; and
• antisocial behaviour and criminal activities near to her home.
2. Mrs D said, as a result, she had experienced distress due to the impact on her local amenity and time she has had to report the issues.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. As part of my investigation, I have:
• considered Mrs D’s complaint and the Council’s responses;
• discussed the complaint with Mrs D and considered the information she provided;
• considered the information the Council provided in response to my enquiries;
• considered the law, guidance and policy relevant to the complaint.
7. Mrs D and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Relevant law and policy

Waste collection

8. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly, and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
9. The Council manages household waste through its own service, its website says:
• it will make a weekly household waste collection. Its crew’s collect waste on specific days depending on the street residents live in;
• residents should place rubbish in black bin bags by 7am on the morning of the allocated collection day for the street. It does not provide bins or black bin bags; and
• when a resident reports a missed collection, the Council will send an instruction for the relevant crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible, or ask another crew to complete the collection. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.
10. The Council’s website says it is committed to ensuring that a safe, high-quality environment is maintained within its area. Its Environmental services officer are ready to help with concerns around street cleaning, waste collections and maintaining streets and pavements.
11. Residents can report missed waste collections, fly-tipping or street cleaning issues through its website. It asks residents to wait 24 hours before reporting a missed waste collection.

Street cleaning

12. The Control of Pollution Act 1974 places a duty on highway authorities to undertake cleaning of the highways it is responsible for. Local authorities are responsible to undertake street cleaning in its area so far as it appears necessary to the authority in the interest of public health and the amenities of the area.
13. Local authorities are also responsible for abating litter. In doing so they must have a statement of the steps it will take to do so. It must give adequate publicity to its statement and make a copy of the statement available at its offices for inspection of the public.
14. The Council’s website says there are set schedules for the streets to be cleaned, but they also are expected to be kept at an acceptable standard outside of the schedules. Street cleansing includes:
• emptying of all litter bins;
• reporting damaged bins and street furniture;
• removal of all litter, dirt, debris, leaves; and
• if a dirty street is reported, the council aims to clean it up within 24 hours.
15. It also sets out the steps it will take to monitor street cleanliness and how residents can report concerns about litter and fly-tipping. It arranges events in which it encourages the public to take part in events to clean specific areas and issues fines if littering or fly-tipping is observed.

Council’s Complaints Policy

16. The Council’s Policy says it has a two-stage complaint process. This includes:
• a stage one process, for which it will consider complaints and provide its response to within 20 working days; and
• if a complainant remains dissatisfied, a senior officer will respond to stage two complaints within 20 working days.

What happened

17. Mrs D has reported issues to the Council about household waste, street waste and fly-tipping collection issues since May 2022. She also shared concerns around general street cleaning, antisocial behaviour and criminal activities in the area where she lives.
18. As other residents also had issues, a resident’s group was formed and started bringing its concerns to the Council’s attention.
19. Mrs D said she and the residents group reported several missed waste collections in 2022, including several reports of lack of street cleaning or poor standard of street cleaning.
20. The Council’s records show Mrs D reported 12 missed household waste collections from May 2022 to December 2022.
21. Mrs D complained to the Council about its failure to collect her household waste on designated collections days, to collect fly-tipping, and to maintain street cleanliness in her area in late 2022.
22. Around this time, Mrs D and members of the residents group met with the local Mayor and Council officers to discuss ongoing waste collection issues and concerns about poor street cleaning. This resulted in:
• two Council officers being assigned to work with residents and address the Council’s waste collections issues and street cleaning concerns;
• instructions were given to waste collection crews to collect all waste on the designated day, if this was not possible, they should inform the Officer so an alternative crew could make the collection on the same day;
• the officers would schedule visits on waste collection days to review how waste collections were remove and take photos to evidence this; and
• a social media group was created where Mrs D and other residents could report issues directly to the officers.
23. In response to Mrs D’s complaint, the Council apologised for the waste collection issues she had experience in her street and surrounding areas. It said it was aware a plan had been put in place following her meeting with the Mayor and Council officers.
24. Mrs D said the Council arranged a ‘deep-clean’ of her local area in early 2023. However, due to lack of street cleaning afterward it quickly became messy and dirty again.
25. In early 2022 Mrs D escalated her complaint to the Council as she was not satisfied her concerns had been resolved both relating to the waste collection service and street cleaning in her local area.
26. Six weeks later the Council apologised for its delayed response to her complaint. It explained this was due to short staff in its team, but it would respond as soon as possible.
27. In May 2023 Mrs D had still not received the Council’s response to her complaint. So, she asked the Ombudsman to consider her complaint. As the Council’s complaints process had not been completed, we asked the Council to provide its final complaint response to Mrs D.
28. The Council provided its final complaint response to Mrs D in July 2023. It apologised for the delay in responding. It acknowledged her concerns about waste collection and street cleaning but told her officers had monitored her local area on a visit in March 2023 and found it had been cleaned satisfactorily.
29. Mrs D remained unhappy with the Council’s response to her complaint and asked the Ombudsman to consider her complaint. She said:
• she had continued to have missed waste collections, although the service had recently improved;
• she and other members of the residents’ group had continued to report street cleaning issues. She shared pictures of her street cleaning and fly-tipping concerns; and
• while the designated officers were helpful and polite, they had been unable to resolve the ongoing issues.
30. Since bringing her complaint to our attention, Mrs D has shared her reported missed waste collections for Autumn 2023, which shows most of her collections were missed over a three-month period.
31. The Council’s waste service staff and street cleaning team were on strike for a two-week period in September 2023.
32. In response to my enquiries to the Council, it said:
• it does not have a published waste collection and street cleaning policy or service standard since 2020 when it stopped contracting out its services;
• all councils have issues with waste services, but its service is undergoing development and refinement of internal system and processes to improve;
• Mrs D had reported 21 missed waste collections from May 2022 to early September 2023, all of which had been collected soon after she reported it; and
• it had reviewed Mrs D’s collection issues and believed these had occurred as her property was on the corner of two streets with different collections days;
• its system could not show Mrs D’s reported street cleaning and fly-tipping reports. It could therefore not say whether it had adhered to its policy aim of collecting fly-tipping within 24-hours; and
• it is reviewing its street cleaning services to optimise how the service is delivered, which may increase or decrease the frequency of its services.

Analysis and findings

Mrs D’s household waste collection

33. Mrs D has reported a significant amount of missed household waste collections since May 2022.
34. The Council took steps to improve its service and work with Mrs D which meant collections improved in some periods. However, it is clear the issues have not been resolved and she has had to continue to report missed collections frequently. This includes before and after the Council’s waste and street cleaning staff strike.
35. Following my enquiries, the Council suggested Mrs D’s issues may be due to her property being on a corner between two streets with different collection days. I do not accept this suggestion, as Mrs D has showed she left her waste for collection in front of her property on the collection days for the street. Also, if this indeed was the issue, it should not have taken the Council this long to identify and resolve this problem.
36. I accept waste collections may be missed due to errors by the crews and during limited periods such as industrial strike actions. I also accept the Council’s evidence showed it actioned each of Mrs D’s reported missed waste collections.
37. However, I have found the Council at fault for failing to adhere to its duty to collect her waste as set out in its Policy. This is because of the significant number of missed collections Mrs D had since May 2022 and continues to experience, which has caused her distress and frustration.
38. In addition, the evidence shows on most occasions it took the Council 2-5 days to collect her waste when she reported a missed collection. This may be acceptable for rare occurrences of missed collections. However, the Council told Mrs D it would aim to collect her missed waste following her reports on the same day. This did not happen, which therefore caused her further frustration.

Street cleaning and fly-tipping

39. Mrs D shared evidence of the state of the streets around the area where she lives which shows significant littering, overflowing street bins, rubbish bags and fly-tipping. Some of her evidence also relates to a period when the Council’s waste and street cleaning staff were on strike.
40. It is clear the Council has a street cleaning service which cleans its streets and areas at set intervals. It says it aims to have a safe and high-quality environment around its area.
41. The Council told Mrs D it had inspected an area near her home in March 2023 and found it had been appropriately cleaned. It also arranged for a ‘deep clean in early 2023. It therefore did not agree it had failed to maintain the areas around Mrs D’s home.
42. It is unclear, based on the information available to me, whether:
• the Council’s street cleaning has been missed or of a poor standard; or
• rubbish from bin bags are overspilling into the area due to poor or delayed waste collection practices, including delayed fly-tipping collections; or
• other factors such as persistent littering and fly-tipping has aggravated the problem.
43. However, while I acknowledge the Council’s difficulties in maintaining the standard it has set and the steps it has taken to improve the environment, I found the Council has caused a service failure. This is because I am satisfied there is enough evidence to show the environment in the area around Mrs D’s home has not been consistently maintained to the ‘high quality standard’ the Council aims for, and Mrs D has repeatedly brought this to the Council’s attention.
44. I am satisfied this has caused Mrs D some distress due to the impact this had on her local amenity.

Anti-social behaviour and criminal activities

45. Mrs D raised concerns to the Council about the behaviour of individuals and groups of people near her home. This included aggressive and criminal behaviour such as theft, vandalism and drug or alcohol related activities.
46. While the Council has duties to tackle some anti-social behaviour, I found the concerns Mrs D raised should be reported to the Police. This is because her concerns mainly relate to criminal activities which is for the Police to address. I have therefore not found the Council at fault on this point.

Complaints handling

47. I have considered how the Council handled Mrs D’s complaint. This shows it responded to her stage one complaint in late 2022 which was within the timescales set out in its policy.
48. She asked the Council to consider her complaint under its stage two complaint process in early 2022. However, the Council did not provide its response until five months later, which was after it had promised it would provide its response and the Ombudsman chasing it for its final complaint response.
49. The Council therefore failed to respond to Mrs D as set out in its Complaints Policy. This was fault, which caused Mrs D unnecessary time and trouble to get her concerns responded to.
50. It has also come to my attention, the Council does not have an approved Waste Management Strategy, as its Waste Management Strategy 2018-2030 remains to be in draft form. This is poor practice and leaves the Council open to unnecessary scrutiny. I can see no good reason why its Strategy has not been reviewed and approved five years after it was first created.

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Agreed action

51. To remedy the injustice the Council caused to Mrs D, the Council should, within one month of the final decision:
1. apologise in writing to Mrs D for the Council’s faults, service failure and poor complaints handling. It should also;
1. pay her £250 to acknowledge the distress these caused her; and
2. pay her £150 to acknowledge the unnecessary time and trouble she had to bring her concerns to the Council’s attention.
2. review how waste collections are completed in Mrs D’s street to ensure her waste is collected weekly in line with the Council’s Policy, and inform Mrs D and other residents of any necessary changes to its practice.
52. Within three months of the final decision the Council should also:
1.  
2.  
3. review the adequacy of the Council’s waste collection and street cleaning services to ensure it delivers services in line with its published timescales and standards;
4. review and approve the Council’s Draft Waste Management Strategy 2018-2030 to enable staff and its residents to be able to rely on an approved Policy for its waste and street cleaning services; and
5. review why the Council’s complaints procedure was not adhered to. It should also remind its Complaints Team to ensure it responds to the complaints it receives and does so within the timescales set out in its Complaints Policy.
53. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

54. There was fault by the Council, which caused Mrs D an injustice. It is on this basis I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman