Summary: The Council failed to collect Mr B’s household waste and recycling on several occasions. The Council has apologised for this. It has also agreed to monitor the collections and to take action to deal with any issues it identifies.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains that the Council is repeatedly failing to collect the household waste and recycling from the block of flats where he lives.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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

4. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

5. The Environmental Protection Act 1990, sections 45 (1) and 45 A require the Council to collect household waste and recycling. The Council provides a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection to Mr B’s address.
6. In April 2018, Mr B reported that his household waste and recycling had not been collected for three weeks. He then emailed the Council six days later to complain that it had still not collected the waste. The Council collected it the next day. It apologised to Mr B for the poor service he received and said that it would be interviewing the relevant crew to ensure future collections were made as scheduled.
7. In July 2018, Mr B complained to the Council that it had not collected his recycling for four weeks, despite him reporting the missed collection a week earlier. The Council then collected the recycling around two weeks later, on the next scheduled collection date. In the Council’s response, it apologised that it was unable to make a collection before then.
8. Mr B complained to the Council again in October 2018. He said that it had missed the last two household waste collections and had not collected the recycling for three weeks. The Council apologised for the missed collections and explained that it had launched a new operating model for waste collection services at the end of September which had caused some disruption.
9. Mr B contacted the Council again as he was not satisfied with its response. He explained that the problems had started before the Council had launched the new service model. In the Council’s final response, it said that the issues were caused by a change of crew, and it anticipated that collections would start to settle down.
10. Mr B says that in the seven weeks following the Council’s final response to his complaint, it failed to carry out collections on two further occasions. Industrial action then affected the service and resulted in further missed collections. Mr B says that both during and since the industrial action, the Council has failed to collect the recycling from his block of flats, but has collected the recycling from nearby houses.

Analysis

11. There are some differences between the collections Mr B says were missed, and the Council’s records. But there is no dispute that the Council has missed several household waste and recycling collections. It is also clear that the missed collections were not then collected in a timely manner.
12. The Council has explained that there was a change of crew when it launched the new operating model in late September 2018, and there was industrial action in early 2019. While this accounts for some of the disruption, it does not explain why the Council failed to collect Mr B’s household waste and recycling in April and July 2018, or after the industrial action ended in 2019.
13. The Council’s failure to collect Mr B’s household waste and recycling as scheduled, or promptly after he reported missed collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr B frustration and he has been put to time and trouble trying to resolve the matter.
14. The Council has apologised for the missed collections. I consider it should also take action to prevent further missed collections.

Agreed action

15. The Council has agreed to monitor the household waste and recycling collections for at least six weeks to check that the block of flats does not continue to be missed, and to take action to resolve any issues it identifies. It will commence the monitoring within four weeks of my final decision.

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Final decision

16. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Mr B. The action the Council has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman