Summary: Mrs X complained the Council took over four months to deliver her new waste and recycling bins after it introduced a new service provider. She also complained about missed collections and issues in rearranging them. The Council was at fault and should pay Mrs X £100 as well as monitoring her bin collections for three months to remedy the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council took over four months to deliver her new waste and recycling bins after a new service provider was introduced. It also missed waste and recycling collections and made it difficult to rearrange collections if the service provider wrongly recorded that her bins were not presented.
2. Mrs X has gone to considerable time and trouble in chasing the Council and making her complaint.

Back to top

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 an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. As part of the investigation I have considered the following:
• The complaint and the documents provided by the complainant, as well as the information we discussed in a telephone conversation.
• Documents provided by the Council and its comments in response to my enquiries.
• The Environmental Protection Act 1990.
• The Council’s Waste Management Policy.
• The Council’s Waste Collection Calendar.
• The Council’s FAQ Document – New Waste Collection Service October 2018
6. I have written to Mrs X and the Council with my draft decision and given them an opportunity to comment.

Back to top

What I found

7. The Council has a legal duty to collect household waste and recyclable waste. (Environmental Protection Act 1990, sections 45(1) and 45A).
8. The council can contract out their waste collection service. When a council commissions another organisation to provide services on its behalf it remains responsible for those services.
9. On Mrs X’s street, food waste, textiles and household waste is collected weekly. Recycling, rubbish and garden waste is collected every two weeks.
10. If a collection is missed, it should be reported within two working days. The Council aims to return within two working days of the report to empty the bin.

What happened

11. Mrs X lives in a shared house divided into flats.
12. In March 2018 Mrs X contacted the Council to discuss the impact of the new waste management contract which was due to come into effect in October 2018.
13. On 29 March 2018 the Council visited Mrs X to assess her bin provision. Mrs X and the Council discussed replacing the individual bins and recycling boxes with communal ones.
14. On 10 April 2018 the Council sent Mrs X an e-mail informing her it intended to replace the individual bins with four larger wheelie bins and four recycling boxes to be shared by residents of Mrs X’s property.
15. On 17 July 2018 Mrs X telephoned the Council to confirm the allocation of the new bins. She also e-mailed the Council to confirm the conversation. The Council replied on 24 July 2018 to inform Mrs X the new arrangements would start from October 2018 and that the flats would receive four new bins and five recycling boxes.
16. On 14 October 2018 Mrs X contacted the Council by e-mail to advise it the wrong bins had been delivered. Instead of the four large shared bins, ten smaller individual bins were sent. She also advised that her waste had not been collected since 24 September 2018.
17. The Council replied the next day. It apologised the wrong bins had been delivered and asked Mrs X to allow a few days for the matter to be sorted.
18. On 18 October 2018 Mrs X contacted the Council by e-mail again to advise that her waste had still not been collected and the correct bins had still not been delivered.
19. On 25 October 2018 Mrs X contacted her local councillor by e-mail. She said that she had phoned the Council’s helpline and was told to make a formal complaint, but when she did nobody got back to her.
20. On 29 October 2018 the Council contacted Mrs X by e-mail to apologise for the delay in delivering her new bins. It told her the delivery crew were working through a list of properties, and Mrs X’s property was on the list for urgent attention.
21. On 12 November 2018 Mrs X e-mailed the Council and told it her new bins had still not been delivered. Mrs X’s local councillor also e-mailed the Council to chase it up.
22. The Council replied on 14 November 2018 and repeated the same message as in its e-mail of 29 October 2018. It said the issue was being escalated to senior management at its service provider.
23. On 14 November 2018, Mrs X telephoned the Council when her garden waste was not collected. She told the Council that she had been unable to report the missed collection using its online service, as the service operator had recorded that Mrs had not presented her bin for collection.
24. By 26 November the delivery of the new wheelie bins remained outstanding. Mrs X made a formal complaint to the Council.
25. In December 2018 Mrs X telephoned the Council’s waste management provider direct. She was told the bins were in stock, but she would have to pay if she wanted them.
26. On 10 December 2018 the Council e-mailed Mrs X and admitted that it had failed to deliver on service standards. It advised the news bins would be delivered in December 2018.
27. The new bins did not arrive in December and the Council also failed to issue a stage one response. Mrs X telephoned the Council and escalated her complaint to stage two of the complaints process on 8 January 2019.
28. On 23 January 2019, the Council sent an e-mail to Mrs X in which it apologised for the problems she had experienced and confirmed the correct bins would be delivered by 25 January 2019.
29. On 28 January 2019 Mrs X sent an e-mail to the Council to confirm that, while her new bins had now arrived, her waste was not collected.
30. On 8 February 2019, the Council provided its stage two response to Mrs X’s complaint. It apologised for not responding to her complaint at stage one. It said this was due to the volume of complaints received about its new service provider, meaning that it had not been able to respond to all complaints on time. The Council also acknowledged that it took an unacceptable amount of time to deliver the correct bins and it apologised for the delays and inconvenience caused. In respect of the missed garden waste collection, the Council said it could not reach a conclusion as to whether Mrs X presented the bin. As a gesture of goodwill, it refunded Mrs X the cost of the missed collection
31. On 26 March 2019 Mrs brought her complaint to the Ombudsman as the issues with missed collections were ongoing and she was not satisfied with the outcome of the Council’s investigation. Mrs X says she was not told the reason why collections were missed.

The Councils response to enquiries

32. The Council provided details of Mrs X’s bin collections between 3 October 2018 and April 2019. These show Mrs X reported missed collections 25 times. The Council said the main reason for the missed collections was excess waste reported by the bin crew.
33. The Council has advised that it has a service agreement with its waste management provider whereby customers cannot fail to present their waste and then call the bin crew back. As a result, if the bin crew record that bins were not presented, a resident cannot report a missed collection online. Instead, the customer can telephone the Council or send it an e-mail. The Council says that it considers this to be a sensible compromise between their obligations to its contractors and customers.

My Findings

34. The Council told residents it would deliver the new bins in August or September 2018, ready for the new collection service which started in October 2018.
35. When Mrs X’s new bins did not arrive by October 2018, the Council asked her to wait longer, then gave a new deadline of December 2018, which it subsequently missed. The new bins were delivered at the end of January 2019, four months after the start of the new collection service.
36. The Council has acknowledged that its level of service fell below the standards expected. That was fault. This caused Mrs X an injustice as she went to considerable time and trouble in following up the bin delivery with the Council. The Council has apologised to Mrs X for this fault; however, this does not remedy the injustice caused.
37. The Council’s records show there were twelve reports of missed collections from Mrs X’s address between 3 October 2018 and April 2019. On seven occasions the Council recorded the collections as having originally been completed. However, the contractor went out again to complete the collections and on balance I find that Mrs X would not put herself to unnecessary time and trouble in reporting a missed collection if this was not the case. I therefore find the Council was at fault.
38. On four of the occasions collections were missed, the records show that this was because of contamination or the waste being over full. The Council’s policy says that bins will not be emptied if they are contaminated or overflowing, but it also says a sticker or notice will be left for the owner to inform them. Mrs X says this did not happen. It is not possible to say the Council was at fault on those four occasions. On one occasion the online reporting form was not completed correctly, and it is not possible to say the reason why the collection was missed.
39. The Council said that there will inevitably be issues when starting a service with a new provider. Nevertheless, there was fault. This has caused Mrs X an injustice because she was put to avoidable time and trouble in contacting the Council to rearrange collections.
40. The Council’s policy is to return to carry out missed collections within two days, provided the resident reports the missed collection within two days.
41. The Council has an online system where missed collections are reported. Residents can also report missed collections by telephone or e-mail.
42. Mrs X says she could not use the online reporting system if the service provider had recorded that her bins were not presented. However, the Council’s system allows customers to also report missed collections by telephone or email. Mrs X had other ways to tell the Council about the missed collection. Therefore, the Council was not at fault.
43. The Council’s complaints procedure states that stage one complaints will be investigated and responded to within 20 working days. The Council failed to provide Mrs X with a response within this timeframe. That was fault. It said the delay was due to the volume of complaints received about its new service provider. The Council apologised for the delay and provided a full stage two complaint response. Therefore, there was no injustice caused.

Agreed action

44. Within one month of the final decision, the Council will pay Mrs X £100 to recognise her time and trouble taken to report the missed collections and to chase up the delivery of the new wheelie bins.

The Council will also monitor the waste collections at the flats for the next three months.

Back to top

Final decision

45. There was fault causing injustice when the Council delayed in delivering Mrs X’s new bins and in missing collections. The Council should pay Ms X £100 to remedy the injustice caused and monitor her bin collections for three months.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman