Summary: The Council was at fault as it failed to maintain a regular garden waste collection for Ms X’s street. It also failed to carry out periodic monitoring which it had agreed to do following Ms X’s complaint. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X and other residents and to carry out monitoring to prevent a recurrence of the fault.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council has failed to collect her garden waste on the scheduled date since it provided her with a garden waste bin in May 2018. Ms X says the bin has only been emptied on three occasions, all of which were an unscheduled collection because the regular collection was missed.

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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. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation, if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered the information provided by Ms X and have spoken to her on the telephone. I have considered the Council’s response to my enquiries.
6. I gave Ms X and the Council the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision. I considered their comments before I reached a final decision.

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What I found

7. In May 2018 the Council expanded its garden waste collection scheme to include Ms X’s street, as a free service with no additional cost to residents. In late July 2018 Ms X reported to the Council that it had failed to collect her garden waste. In early August 2018 Ms X contacted the Council’s complaints team to report it had failed to collect her garden waste again. Ms X reported that since she was given a garden waste bin, she had not had a collection. She wanted to ensure it would be collected on the next collection date.
8. In September 2018 Ms X submitted a stage 1 complaint to the Council as it had still not collected the garden waste. The Council responded and apologised. It said it had arranged for a collection to take place. It said the crew were not aware they should be collecting bins from Ms X’s street and will do so in future.
9. Ms X submitted a stage 2 complaint in October 2018 as the Council had again failed to collect the garden waste bins. She reported they were collected once, after the previous complaint, but had not been regularly collected since. In its Stage 2 response, the Council apologised. It said there was evidence it had recently collected other bins in the street. It suggested a suitable collection point for Ms X to place her bin. It said it hoped that with periodic checks and the correct placement of the bin the issue would be resolved.
10. Ms X contacted the Ombudsman in May 2019 as the Council was still not collecting the bins. Ms X reported further missed collections in August and September 2019.
11. In response to my enquiries the Council confirmed it had received complaints from five other residents in Ms X’s street reporting missed collections, most of which referred to missing the whole street.

Findings

12. The Council, in response to my enquiries, accepted it failed to maintain a regular garden waste collection on Ms X’s street. This is fault. The Council says the existing garden waste routes did not have the capacity to take on the extra collections so it had to implement additional resources. There were also logistical difficulties with different streets within the area having scheduled collections on different days. This caused confusion to residents and also to some collection crews.
13. In response to Ms X’s stage 2 complaint, the Council agreed to implement periodic checks. This did not happen and this is fault. The Council says this did not happen due to staff absences and vacancies. The Council has since recruited additional Team Leaders. The Council says an officer has now apologised to Ms X and it will carry out fortnightly monitoring. This is appropriate. However, the fault has also impacted on other residents.

Agreed action

14. The Council has agreed, within one month of the final decision on this complaint, to write to Ms X apologising for failing to regularly collect her garden waste and for the frustration this has caused her. It has also agreed to write to all other residents in Ms X’s street to apologise for failing to provide a regular garden waste collection, explaining why this happened and confirming when, in future, the waste will be collected.
15. The Council has already said it will carry out fortnightly monitoring of the garden waste collection. It should do this for a period of three months and provide the Ombudsman with evidence it has done this. As it is nearing the end of this year’s garden waste collection service it should continue monitoring into the start of the next year’s garden waste collection service to ensure three months monitoring is completed.

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Final decision

16. I have completed my investigation. There was fault by the Council and it has agreed to take action to remedy the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman