Summary: There was fault in the way the Council handled Ms X’s complaint and refuse collections. This caused Ms X unnecessary inconvenience. The Council will apologise, clarify Ms X’s collection preferences and provide a time and trouble payment.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about missed bin collections and difficulties presenting a wheelie bin to the collection point.

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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 information provided by Ms X and the Council. I have also spoken to Ms X by telephone.
5. I have written to Ms X and the Council with my draft decision and considered their comments.

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What I found

6. Ms X told me that when she moved into the property in 2011 due to the situation and location of the property (no vehicular access) refuse would be collected from a bin cupboard in her garden. She was not issued with a wheelie bin or a hand bin.
7. Ms X says she bought her own hand bin and was given a black wheelie bin (privately purchased by a neighbour) and started to use these as animals were getting into the bin bags. The wheelie bin was stored at the end of her row of houses.
8. Ms X told me there have been several occasions when the Council did not remove her waste since 2011. She complained to the Council in 2018.
9. The Council told me this area moved from bag collections to wheelie bin collections around May / June 2015. It said in its view Ms X had become confused when the street changed from hand bins to wheelie bins and had assumed refuse would continue to be collected from her garden when she had a wheelie bin.
10. The Council says it received complaints from Ms X about missed collections in June 2018. It says it checked her next collection was successful and put in place measures to monitor there were no further problems. It says Ms X was dissatisfied with the response and escalated her complaint to stage two.
11. Ms X told us she struggled to move the wheelie bin and wanted the Council to collect it from her house, but the Council refused to move her wheelie bin for safety and insurance reasons. Ms X says this meant her wheelie bin was not emptied and the Council did not remove waste bags from her garden either.
12. The Council says at stage two an officer arranged to accompany the team on the next collection. As Ms X had two bins, a hand bin and wheelie bin, he thought this may have caused confusion for operatives because hand bins should have been removed when the Council introduced wheelie bins. The Officer therefore removed the hand bin. The Officer noted Ms X did not have a green bin for recycling and in its stage two response the Council said it would provide one for free. It said as the area had moved to wheelie bins Ms X was required to present the wheelie bins at the kerbside in future.
13. Ms X did not agree she had confused matters by using her own wheelie bin. She says this was stored at the end of the row and did not have her house number on it so officers could not have been confused by this and could not have known this was where she was storing her bin bags. She said sometimes the crew leave her new bin bags and sometimes they do not, and some neighbours still have hand bins and some have wheelie bins. Ms X was unhappy the Council had removed the hand bin she had purchased herself.
14. Ms X says she did not receive the green bin promised in the stage two response.
15. Ms X said she struggles to get the wheelie bin to the kerbside. There are steps down to the kerbside at the end of the row of houses. Ms X says that her partner can take the wheelie bin out to the kerbside, but he sometimes works night shifts and on those days she does not take the bin out so the rubbish is not collected.
16. The Council says residents are required to present wheelie bins at the kerbside unless they are eligible for assisted collection. The Council’s policy is to offer assisted collections to elderly or disabled residents where there is no able-bodied occupant able to present the bin.
17. The Council considers Ms X may have thought that by having bin bags collected before the introduction of wheelie bins, she was on an assisted collection, but this was never the case. She was on a bag collection because wheelie bins had not yet been introduced. The Council says it is open to Ms X to apply for an assisted collection, but if her partner is able-bodied she is unlikely to meet the criteria.
18. The Council says it has monitored the situation and Ms X is now presenting her wheelie bin at the kerbside and it is not aware of any ongoing problems. It also says it has no record of any problems from other residents. Ms X says subsequent to this response she has had a further missed collection and made a further complaint.
19. Ms X says the Council is wrong to say wheelie bins have been introduced, the only reason she has a wheelie bin is because she personally sourced one. She says only two other properties on the row have a wheelie bin and this is likely to be because they requested one.
20. Ms X considers her hand bin, which she paid for, should be returned or she should be compensated for the same.
21. Ms X says as she has never been formally told the area has moved to wheelie bins and has never been issued with a black, green or brown bin that the Council should still be checking her garden for binbags.
22. Ms X says she has observed refuse operatives using her wheelie bin to collect bin bags and transport them to the roadside so it was not correct for the Council to say operatives were not able to move the wheelie bins.
23. I asked the Council to check again the information it had given me and Ms X that this row of houses was moved to wheelie bins in 2015. The Council has now acknowledged that while its records show this area of Leeds was moved from bag to wheelie bin collections in 2015, it is possible this change was not applied to all properties due to property layout or potentially human error. It agrees it has no record of ever issuing a black, green or brown wheelie bin to Ms X.
24. The Council says under legislation it has the right to determine the type of receptacle for waste and where waste needs to be presented. It can do this by serving a notice. It says the advantage of having wheelie bins is that it provides more capacity for safe storage and in this case it was Ms X who requested a wheelie bin and as such she had to present it to the kerbside. It said if eligible for assisted service Ms X’s wheelie bins would be removed and replaced by two small hand bins (one for green and one for black) which would be collected alternate weeks. Any additional black waste than the hand bin would not be collected. This would reduce Ms X’s waste capacity.
25. The Council has acknowledged it failed to provide the green bin it promised in the stage two and it has now delivered this. The Council says if Ms X would like a brown bin this can also be provided free of charge but will need to be presented to the roadside.

Analysis

26. The Council’s approach to Ms X’s complaint was that she had requested a wheelie bin, or received a notice requiring her to use a wheelie bin, and therefore she must now present the waste to the kerbside. This information was incorrect. The Council has never served a notice on Ms X requiring her to change to wheelie bins, it has never issued her with a wheelie bin and she did not request to move to wheelie bin collection. Rather Ms X sourced her own black wheelie bin which she used to store her full bin bags between collections at a place away from her house.
27. As such Ms X is correct to say that the Council should still have been collecting her waste bags from her garden. The missed collections were not the result of Ms X’s confusion about the new system, as she had never been put onto the new system. The confusion was with the Council as it believed Ms X’s property was on wheelie bin collection when this was not the case.
28. The Council is correct to say it can require a resident to use a wheelie bin and present the waste to the kerbside (unless they require assisted collection). It can only do this by serving notice. There is no evidence the Council has served a notice on Ms X’s property, as confirmed by the fact it has no record of issuing any colour of wheelie bins to this address.
29. The Council has a policy for residents who need extra assistance. Ms X has not applied under this policy because she would only need to do so once she had been formally received a notice to move from bag to wheelie bin collection. As the Council did not issue a notice, Ms X never received the information about assisted collections.

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Agreed action

30. Within four weeks of my final decision the Council will apologise to Ms X for:
• The confusion caused by giving contradictory and incorrect information during the complaint process and my investigation
• Its incorrect assumption her property had been formally changed to wheelie bin collection and the missed collections which resulted from this incorrect assumption
• Removing her self-purchased hand bin.
31. Within four weeks of my final decision the Council will confirm with Ms X her preferences for waste collection, that is whether she wishes to revert to a hand bin (in which case it should provide one) or continue with wheelie bin collection. (If the Council wishes to change the property formally to wheelie bin collection it must serve the required notice, issue the required equipment and provide the relevant information about assisted collection).
32. Within four weeks of my final decision the Council will make a financial payment to Ms X of £250 to acknowledge the time, trouble, confusion and inconvenience caused as a result of its handling of her complaint and the missed collections.

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Final decision

33. I have completed my investigation. There was fault in the way the Council handled Ms X’s complaint and refuse collection but I am satisfied the agreed actions set out above are a satisfactory remedy for the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman