Birmingham City Council (19 002 435)

Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 11 Oct 2019

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections were missed. The Council’s failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections over an extended period, amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled day. Miss X receives assisted collections and complains that although her neighbours’ waste and recycling is collected, her is regularly missed.

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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 Miss X;
    • made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
    • discussed the issues with Miss X;
    • sent a statement setting out my draft decision to Miss 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.
  3. When a missed collection is reported to the Council, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the collection is complete, the Council closes the report.
  4. At the end of December 2018 collection crews began industrial action. The Council introduced a contingency plan to make one collection for all waste types each week rather than separate collections of household waste and recycling. The crews began working to rule on 29 December 2018 and the first full day of industrial action was 19 February 2019.
  5. The Council moved to a fortnightly collection for all waste types in February 2019. When the industrial action ended in mid-March 2019, the Council returned to weekly household and fortnightly recycling collections.
  6. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.

What happened here

  1. Miss X should have received assisted collections but states the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling since September 2018. Her neighbours’ waste is collected, but Miss X’s is routinely missed. Miss X has repeatedly reported the missed collections and complained to the Council.
  2. The Council’s records show Miss X reported 14 missed household waste collections over the last 12 months. These reports are all closed which indicates the missed collections have since been made. The Council has not provided evidence of the dates the missed collections were made, and states there may be a delay between the missed collections being made and the report being closed.
  3. Based on the information the Council has provided the missed collections were not made in a timely manner or on the next scheduled collection day. The records also suggest that other collections were also missed.
  4. As an example, Miss X reported a missed collection on 16 November 2018. The Council states this relates to a collection scheduled for 8 November 2018, and the report was closed on 3 December 2018. This would suggest that the collection scheduled for 15 November 2018 was also missed, prompting the report on 16 November 2018. And that collections scheduled for 22 and 29 November 2018 were missed as well.
  5. Miss X complained to the Council in January 2019 that her waste had not been collected since the end of August 2018. Miss X felt she was being discriminated against as her neighbours’ waste was routinely collected.
  6. In response the Council apologised for the inconvenience caused by the missed collections. It confirmed Miss X was registered for assisted collections and that the service manager had spoken to the crew and reminded them of her collection. The Council referred to the industrial action and confirmed a plan was in place to minimise the disruption.
  7. In April 2019 Miss X asked for her complaint to be reviewed as the situation had still not been resolved. The Council’s response confirmed it had escalated the complaint to the service manager to ensure Miss X’s assisted collections are carried out as scheduled.
  8. Miss X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. She also contacted the Council again in early June 2019 as her waste had still not been collected. She reported that neither her household waste nor her recycling had been collected since November 2018. She now had 20 black sacks on her property waiting to be collected. Miss X again asserted this was disability discrimination and advised the Council it was affecting her mental health and well-being.
  9. The Council told Miss X it was unable to deal with her complaint as it had already dealt with a complaint on the same issue. However, the Council visited Miss X’s property on 15 June 2019 and emptied the bins and removed all the excess sacks.
  10. In response to my enquiries the Council states the missed household waste and recycling collections at the end of 2018 were due to the implementation of new working arrangements. Problems with data issues also caused the missed recycling collections. The Council states that these issues have now been fixed.
  11. It has not carried out any monitoring of the collections from Miss X’s property but the Council has suggested this may be helpful as there have been further missed collections.
  12. The Council notifies collection crews of assisted collections via mobile technology in the vehicles and manual print outs in the crew packs. The Council does not believe Miss X has been discriminated against as crews would be unaware of individual residents. To try and address the problem with assisted collections a senior officer will remind the crew of the assisted collection process.

Analysis

  1. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s waste collection 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. However, its records of missed collections appear to be inaccurate or incomplete. I do not consider the information provided to be a reliable indication of when collections were missed, or household waste and recycling were collected from Miss X’s property.
  3. The Council’s records show all reports of missed collections are closed, but Miss X disputes her household waste or recycling was collected and has repeatedly told the Council that sacks of waste were piling up at her property.
  4. The Council states the missed household waste and recycling collections at the end of 2018 were due to the implementation of new working arrangements and problems with data issues. But this does not explain why Miss X’s neighbours’ waste was collected and Miss X’s was not. It is also unclear why, if details of assisted collections appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and are added to the crew packs, Miss X’s household waste and recycling was missed when the rest of the street was collected.
  5. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council has dealt with Miss X’s complaints. Despite the Council’s assurances it had reminded the crew members and regular collections would be made, the service did not improve, and the missed collections continued. It is also a concern that the Council refused to accept Miss X’s further complaint in June 2019, given that the problem had not been resolved.
  6. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Miss X a significant injustice. I recognise the Council removed excess waste in June 2019, and Miss X has confirmed the service has improved since then. But between September 2018 and June 2019 Miss X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste left at her property. She has experienced disappointment and frustration both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve her complaints. Miss X has also been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter.

Agreed action

  1. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £300 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections over an extended period has caused.
  2. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.
  3. The Council has also agreed to carry out a period of monitoring to ensure Miss X’s waste and recycling is collected on the scheduled days. This monitoring should begin within one month of the final decision on this complaint and continue for a period of eight weeks.

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Final decision

  1. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Miss X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner when they are missed, amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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