London Borough of Tower Hamlets (18 015 046)

Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 09 Oct 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: The Ombudsman upholds Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s contractor failing to return her bin to the correct location. The Council has not done enough to monitor the contractor’s service delivery so the problem has persisted for longer than it should. The Council agreed to apologise to Ms X and make a payment to recognise the inconvenience and frustration caused. It will also carry out further monitoring of the contractor and report its findings to Ms X and the Ombudsman.

The complaint

  1. Ms X complains the Council’s contractor regularly fails to return her bin to the correct location. She also says the Council takes too long to arrange to have the bins put back properly. Ms X says this has caused her frustration and stress and has put her into conflict with other residents.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)
  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

  1. I have considered the complaint made by Ms X and the documents she provided.
  2. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and the documents it provided in response to my enquiries.
  3. I gave Ms X and the Council an opportunity to comment on my draft decision and I considered their responses.
  4. I took account of the Ombudsman’s focus report ‘Lifting the lid on bin complaints’ published in August 2017.

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What I found

Background

  1. Councils have a duty to collect household waste and recycling free of charge.
  2. Many councils, including the one in this case, use a contractor to provide waste and recycling services on their behalf. In such cases, the council remains responsible for ensuring the quality of the service and being accountable if things go wrong.
  3. The Ombudsman’s focus report recognises that given the universal nature of waste collection services, there will always be the occasional problem. However, the report also highlighted a common theme of complainants having to raise the same issue repeatedly. Many problems stem from councils not having enough oversight of their contractors and not taking ownership of responding effectively to reported issues. The report makes clear that to monitor effectively, councils need to actively check contractors complete collections properly.
  4. The Council’s contract says any concerns about bins not being returned are investigated by Council officers who then tell the contractor. The contractor must action the request to return the bin within five working days.

What happened

  1. In August 2018, Ms X complained the Council’s contractors were not returning her wheelie bin to the correct place inside the front gate of her property.
  2. The Council responded to the complaint in early September. It said it had raised the issue with the supervisor of the contractor who had instructed the crew to ensure weekly collections take place properly. They had been told to ensure they returned bins to their designated area with the gates closed. The Council apologised for the inconvenience caused.
  3. The Council has provided evidence of email correspondence between the officer overseeing the contract and the contractor. The officer shared the details of the complaint with the supervisors and asked that they address the issue with their crews.
  4. Two weeks later, the contractor left Ms X’s bin out again unemptied and she reported this to the Council. Ms X said the bin was in the street for a week despite her reporting it to the Council four days in a row. The Council escalated her complaint to the second stage of its complaint procedure.
  5. The Council responded to the complaint at the end of October. It said it had issued the contractor with a penalty for missed collections in August and it had no further reports of missed collections. The Council said it had raised the issue of the bin not being returned correctly with the contractor again. The Council said the contractor would be closely monitoring the issue and had assured the Council it had clearly instructed all crews in the process.
  6. The Council has provided evidence of further email correspondence between the officer overseeing the contact and the contractor. The officer asked the supervisors to address the issue of bins not being returned correctly with the crews to ensure they were returning them inside the gates.
  7. Ms X replied to the Council to say the contractor had returned her bin correctly but had left out several other bins on the street. The Council escalated the complaint to the third stage of its complaint procedure.
  8. The Council responded in November. It said the failure to return the bins had been reported to the team overseeing the contract. It repeated the information from the response at stage two. It said the contractor had apologised for the poor service and assured the Council it would be closely monitoring the issue. It said the contractor had reminded crews of the process for returning bins. The Council provided Ms X with the contact details of the officer overseeing the contract to report any further issues directly.
  9. Ms X reported a further incident of the contractor leaving her bin out in December 2018 and decided to contact the Ombudsman. She told the Ombudsman there were four further incidents between December and February 2019. She sent further photographic evidence of bins in the street in May and June 2019. She said she often returned from work in the late evening to find her bin had been in the street all day. She said her neighbours were unhappy with her as the bin was in their way.
  10. In its response to our early enquiries, the Council said Ms X had not contacted the named officer overseeing the contract since September 2018. However, I have seen evidence of at least one email from Ms X to the officer in December 2018 to report the contractor leaving her bin out.
  11. The Council also said the contractor had monitored the issue for a period but could not say when this was. It said a new crew had taken over collections on Ms X’s street in early 2019 and had not been inducted. It said they had now been instructed to replace the bins in the correct position.
  12. In its response to my enquiries, the Council said there was no written evidence of monitoring being undertaken by the contractor as it had taken the form of verbal reminders.
  13. The Council said the issues Ms X experienced were due in part to staffing changes leading to a lack of ownership and consistency in managing the matter. It said some information was sent to different departments so the officer overseeing the issue did not have a full picture. It said it has restructured the service to manage such situations more effectively in the future.

Analysis

  1. The Council took some steps to address Ms X’s concerns about her bin with the contractor. It contacted the supervisors and took formal action in issuing a penalty for missed collections.
  2. However, there is no evidence the Council followed up on its emails to the contractor to ensure it had taken action to address the issue of crews not returning the bins.
  3. There is also no written evidence of the advice given to crews attending Ms X’s street. When the crew changed the new members were not told about putting the bins back behind the gate.
  4. The Council assured Ms X the contractor would be monitoring the service but has been unable to provide any evidence of how or when this was completed or what the findings were.
  5. Effective monitoring requires the Council to actively check the collection has been completed properly. If the monitoring finds the problem persists, the Council needs to find the cause and put it right. In this case, the monitoring was not done properly, and this was fault. As a result, the problem has persisted causing Ms X frustration and putting her into conflict with her neighbours for longer than is necessary.

Agreed action

  1. When a council commissions another organisation to provide services on its behalf it remains responsible for those services and for the actions of the organisation providing them. So, although I found fault with the service from the contractor, I have made recommendations to the Council.
  2. To remedy the injustice I have identified, within one month of our final decision, the Council will apologise to Ms X and pay her £100 to recognise the inconvenience and frustration its faults have caused her.
  3. The Council will also carry out monitoring of waste collections on Ms X’s street for three months from the date of our final decision. This should include but not be limited to:
    • Fortnightly communication with the contractor to share feedback from the contractor’s own monitoring;
    • Council officers to carry out one site visit per month on collection day to ensure crews have emptied and returned bins correctly; and
    • Investigating any further reports from Ms X or other residents about bins not being returned correctly.
  4. The Council will write to Ms X and the Ombudsman within four months of our final decision, explaining the actions it took to monitor collections and what it found. It will explain whether it is satisfied with the contractor’s service and state any action it has taken if it is not satisfied.

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Final decision

  1. I uphold this complaint for the reasons set out in the Analysis section of this decision. Ms X has been caused an injustice by the actions of the Council and it has agreed to take action to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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