Birmingham City Council (18 016 185)

Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 26 Jun 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr X complains he was verbally abused by a member of the crew collecting his waste and recycling and that as a result of reporting this abuse, the collection crew now repeatedly fail to collect his waste and recycling. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner amounts to fault. As does the failure to respond to Mr X’s complaints in a way which addresses the issues raised. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complains he was verbally abused by a member of the crew collecting his waste and recycling. Mr X complains that having reported this abuse to the Council the collection crew now repeatedly fail to collect his waste and recycling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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)
  2. 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. As part of the investigation, I have:
    • considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
    • made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
    • discussed the issues with Mr X;
    • sent a statement setting out my draft decision to Mr X and the Council and invited their comments.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

  1. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
  2. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.

What happened here

  1. Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling since October 2018. He believes this is a deliberate response to a complaint he made about a member of the collection crew. Mr X states he was verbally abused by a member of the refuse collection crew. He reported this to the Council, and the Council dismissed the crew member. Mr X states that since then collection crews have routinely failed to collect his waste or recycling.
  2. The Council’s records show Mr X has reported 17 missed household waste collections and 12 missed recycling collections since October 2018. The reports are all closed which indicates the missed collections have since been made. However, the dates these reports were closed do not suggest collections were made in a timely manner. There are also inconsistencies in the dates the reports were closed.
  3. For example, Mr X reported missed household collections on 18 and 25 October 2018, and the Council closed these reports on 2 and 9 November 2018 respectively. It is unclear why, if the Council collected Mr X’s missed waste on 2 November 2018, it did not close the reports for both 18 and 25 October 2018 on 2 November 2018.
  4. Similarly, the records show Mr X reported missed collections on 29 November and 10 December 2018, and the Council closed the reports on 14 and 21 December 2018 respectively. Had the Council had collected the missed waste on 14 December 2018, it could have closed both reports that day.
  5. This anomaly continued in 2019. Mr X reported missed collections on 8 and 18 January 2019 and the records show the reports were closed on 1 and 5 February 2019. Again, had the missed waste been collected on 1 February 2019, both reports could have been closed that day. The position is further confused as the records also show that Mr X reported a further missed collection on 1 February 2019, and this was closed on 15 February 2019.
  6. There are similar inconsistencies in the Council’s records of Mr X’s reports of missed recycling collections.
  7. These inconsistencies call into question the reliability of the Council’s records.
  8. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also complained to the Council. His complaint referred to the abuse he had received from a member of the collection crew and his concerns that the missed collections were a response to that person’s dismissal.
  9. The Council’s response did not address Mr X’s concerns. It apologised for the missed collections and referred to the implementation of new working arrangements which would take time to bed in.
  10. Mr X is not satisfied by the Council’s response and has asked the Ombudsman to investigate. He states that his household waste and recycling are still not being collected, and that he has not had a regular service since October 2018.
  11. In response to my enquiries the Council states the Depot has had ongoing operational difficulties as well as strike action, and work to rule in the past which has affected the service delivery. It states collections have improved since then and it expects both recycling and waste collections to take place as scheduled now that the industrial action has ceased.
  12. The Council has not carried out any formal monitoring of the waste collections from Mr X’s property but is willing to do so.

Analysis

  1. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s service which amount to fault.
  2. The Council accepts that collections have been missed, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Its records of missed collections appear to be inaccurate or incomplete to the extent I do not consider them to be a reliable indication of when collections were missed, or waste was collected from Mr X’s property.
  3. I recognise the Council had operational difficulties in late 2018 and early 2019, and that these will have been exacerbated by the industrial action. But this does not explain why Mr X’s household waste and recycling and still not being collected on the scheduled days.
  4. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council has responded to Mr X’s complaints. Mr X raised specific concerns about retaliatory action from the collection crews following the dismissal of a member of the crew. The Council’s response does not address this but is instead a generic statement about the changes in working arrangements. This is not an adequate or appropriate response. We would expect the Council to address the specific concerns Mr X raised.
  5. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste and recycling left at his property. He states the accumulation of waste has attracted insects and rodents. Mr X has experienced frustration and disappointment both with the missed collection, and with Council’s poor complaint responses. And has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

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Agreed action.

  1. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £200 in recognition of the ongoing frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular household waste or recycling collections since October 2018 has had on him.
  2. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision.
  3. The Council has also agreed to carry out a period of monitoring to ensure Mr X’s household waste and recycling are collected on the scheduled days. This monitoring should begin within one month of the final decision and continue for a period of eight weeks.

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Final decision

  1. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner amounts to fault. As does the failure to respond to Mr X’s complaints in a way which addresses the issues raised. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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