Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to properly advise Mrs B how to submit an application for assisted bin collections, and for the lack of information on its website about its application procedure. It was also at fault for significant delays in dealing with her complaint. It has agreed to apologise to Mrs B and make a payment of £300 to recognise her time and trouble. It has also agreed to make a payment of £200 to Mrs B’s parents to recognise the period of time they were without assisted collections, and to ensure the details of its procedure are published on its website.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs B, complains that the Council failed to properly deal with her request for assisted bin collections. She asked on behalf of her parents, whom I refer to as Mr and Mrs C.
2. Mrs B says the Council has now agreed to assisted collections. However, she complains that it took over 14 months to respond to her complaints and to come to a decision. She says she went to a significant amount of time and trouble to deal with the Council’s complaints process. She says Mr and Mrs C’s rubbish – including medical waste – built up during that time.
3. Mrs B also says the Council’s website does not make its assisted collections procedure clear.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’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. I spoke to Mrs B about her complaint, and considered information from Mrs B and the Council.
7. I wrote to Mrs B and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments.

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What I found

What should have happened?

The Council’s website

8. The website says that, if someone cannot put their own bins out, and there is no-one else to do it for them, they can apply for assisted collections.
9. New applicants will have to prove they have a disability or condition which prevents them from putting their own bins out.
10. A person can apply for an assisted collection by calling the Council. It may visit them to decide the level of service they need.
11. The website does not mention the application form, or the guidance set out on the form.

The Council’s assisted collection application form and guidance

12. The Council’s application form contains a short section of guidance. It says it will not agree assisted collections if the applicant lives with someone – or has someone living within the grounds of their property – who can put their bins out.
13. This guidance does not appear to be publicly available.

The Council’s complaints procedure

14. The Council’s procedure document says some complaints can be resolved early and quickly – within five working days.
15. If someone makes a formal complaint, the Council will complete a complaints resolution plan (CRP) and share this with the complainant within five working days. The Council expects that the complainant will return this plan within a further five working days.
16. When the Council has received the CRP from the complainant, it has seven working days to finalise the plan. It will then give the complainant a timescale in which it will respond.
17. If the Council cannot respond to the complaint within the agreed timescale, it will update the complainant and set a new deadline.
18. If a complainant is unhappy with the Council’s complaint response and asks for a review, the Council will decide whether a review is appropriate within 10 working days. If it cannot make this decision within that time, it will update the complainant and give reasons for the delay.
19. If the Council agrees to a review it will appoint an investigator, and issue the review response within 30 working days of the investigator’s appointment.

What happened?

20. Mrs B lives next door to her parents in a rural location. Their properties are located at the end of a track. Before April 2018 the Council collected their bins from outside their properties.
21. In April and early May 2018 the Council did not collect Mrs B or her parents’ bins from outside their properties. Mrs B spoke to a waste collector, who told her they would soon need to take their bins to the main road for collection (around 1/3 mile away). This was confirmed by the Council on 14 May.
22. On 23 May the Council visited Mrs B and her parents to discuss the changes to their collections. The Council reports that Mrs B said her parents did not want to speak to the Council (although Mrs B disputes this and says her parents were simply not prepared for the unannounced visit).
23. During the visit the Council completed a health and safety assessment of the site. It decided the track was too narrow for its large refuse collection vehicles, and there was no place to turn around safely.
24. Mrs B says the Council told her during its visit that she would also have to take Mr and Mrs C’s bins to the collection point. She says she told the Council that she had health problems and her husband was not always available to take the bins because of his work. She says she asked for assisted collections for Mr and Mrs C, but the Council refused because she lives close to them.
25. In June – having received a letter from Mr and Mrs C’s MP – the Council responded. It said it had changed its approach because its refuse vehicles had suffered damage, and had even overturned, on poorly maintained private roads. It said these roads also caused a safety risk to its staff and members of the public.
26. On 12 July Mrs B complained to the Council about its refusal of her request for assisted collections. She asked for a meeting to discuss this. The Council appears to have dealt with this under its early resolution procedure.
27. In August the new bin collection arrangements began.
28. The Council says it called Mrs B about a meeting on 24 August, but she did not answer (although Mrs B disputes that the call was made). On 29 August the Council wrote to her to arrange a meeting. The meeting took place in early September. On 24 September the Council wrote to Mrs B and said she could complain if she was still unhappy.
29. Mrs B complained the same day, and on 1 October the Council wrote to her with a draft CRP. Mrs B returned the plan with comments on 29 October, and the Council finalised it on 6 November.
30. After appointing an investigator, the Council told Mrs B it would respond to her complaint by 12 December. However, on the deadline day the investigator told Mrs B he would need until 21 December.
31. The Council answered Mrs B’s complaint on 11 January 2019. It said Mrs B had never made a proper application for assisted collections. However, it accepted that this may have been because of advice she received from a Council officer. It suggested that Mrs B make an application so it could consider her circumstances.
32. The Council accepted that its assisted collections procedure was not publicly available. It said it would change this, and would review the procedure.
33. The Council said it had provided enough information to Mrs B and her parents in advance of the changes to their bin collections.
34. Mrs B was unhappy with the Council’s response. On 11 March she asked for a review. The Council emailed her on 3 and 17 April, apologising for the delay in deciding whether to conduct a review. It agreed a review on 16 May.
35. The Council sent Mrs B its review response on 28 June. It said, again, that it was reviewing its assisted collections procedure, and that Mrs B should submit an application for assisted collections.
36. After sending its review response – and having completed new risk assessments for both large and smaller refuse collection vehicles – the Council agreed assisted bin collections for Mr and Mrs C, to be collected by a smaller vehicle.

My findings

37. The Council has already agreed assisted bin collections for Mr and Mrs C. However, the remaining question is whether it could have done this sooner and, if so, whether this caused an injustice.
38. There is no doubt that the Council was at fault for significant delays in its complaints procedure. It took nine weeks too long to go through its early resolution procedure, and seven weeks too long to decide whether to review the complaint at stage 2. Overall, there were around 18 weeks of delays.
39. There was also fault in the Council’s approach to Mrs B’s request for assisted collections. It is true that she did not submit a formal application in May 2018. However, she asked the Council and appears to have been told that Mr and Mrs C would not be eligible because she lives nearby.
40. The Council – as far as I have seen – did not advise Mrs B to submit a formal application until its stage 1 complaint response in January 2019, and did not properly assess her request in line with its procedure. This meant it did not consider Mrs B’s own health issues, or her husband’s availability.
41. The Council’s website does not give details of all the criteria it uses to consider applications (which are currently listed on the application form). This meant Mrs B could not make an informed decision about how the application process worked or what information she should provide to the Council – again, until January 2019. This was also fault by the Council.
42. The Council has said on two occasions that it is reviewing its assisted collections procedure and that it will make this available on its website. I have yet to see that this has happened. The Council should do this to ensure that future applicants are aware of the procedure.
43. The Council should also apologise to Mrs B for the delays to its complaints procedure and for failing to properly advise her how to submit an application for assisted collections. It should make a token payment to Mrs B to recognise the time and trouble she took pursuing the matter over a longer period than was necessary.
44. In my view, Mr and Mrs C also experienced an injustice from the Council’s failure to properly advise Mrs B about its application procedure. This is because, once the Council conducted new risk assessments and considered other relevant factors in June 2019, it agreed assisted collections.
45. I have seen nothing to suggest that Mr and Mrs C’s circumstances changed in the year preceding that, or that there is a specific reason why the Council would not have agreed assisted collections sooner if it had received a formal application and properly considered it.
46. Because of this, my view is that Mr and Mrs C’s successful application for assisted collections was delayed because of fault by the Council, both in the incomplete information it provided and the delayed complaints process. Their injustice is for the period up to January 2019 (when the Council gave Mrs B the correct information).
47. I am not able to say, with certainty, the extent to which Mr and Mrs C’s rubbish – including medical waste – built up during this period. However, I consider it likely that there was some impact. The Council should make a token payment to Mr and Mrs C to recognise this.

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Agreed actions

48. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B for its failure to properly tell her its application procedure for assisted bin collections, and for significant delays in dealing with her complaint.
49. The Council has agreed to make a payment of £300 to Mrs B to recognise the time and trouble she took to pursue her complaint over a much longer period than was necessary.
50. The Council has agreed to make a payment of £200 to Mr and Mrs C to recognise the period they were without assisted bin collections.
51. These actions should be completed within six weeks of this decision statement.
52. The Council has also agreed to complete its review of its assisted collection procedure, and to ensure that the details of this procedure are published on its website. This should be completed within three months of this decision statement.

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Final decision

53. The Council was at fault for failing to properly advise Mrs B how to submit an application for assisted bin collections, and for the lack of information on its website about its application procedure. It was also at fault for significant delays in dealing with her complaint. The agreed actions remedy the injustice to Mrs B, and to Mr and Mrs C.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman