Summary: Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections are missed. The Council's failure to collect Mr X's recycling amounts to fault causing an injustice for which the Council should apologise.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections are missed for over six months.

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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. 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

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the information provided by Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; and
• 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

5. 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.
6. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
7. 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.

What happened here

8. Mr X states he has experienced issues with his recycling collections over several months. He states the Council repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled days in the first half of the year.
9. The Council’s records show Mr X has reported two missed recycling collections over the last 12 months. The first report was on 10 April 2019 and the second was on 22 May 2019. The Council closed these reports on 7 May 2019 and 18 June 2019 respectively 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 or on the next scheduled collection day. As there should have been fortnightly collections, the records suggest that other collections were also missed on 23 April 2019 and 4 June 2019.
10. The Council states there may be a delay between the missed collections being made and the report being closed, so it should not be assumed that other collections were missed. But it has not provided evidence of the dates the missed collections were made where this is different to the date the reports were closed.
11. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also complained to the Council. In his complaint of 9 April 2019 Mr X complained his recycling was not being collected every two weeks, and he was fed up of having to constantly call to report the missed collections. On 17 April 2019 Mr X complained his recycling had still not been collected. He was unhappy that when he reported missed collections, he was told the waste will be collected in the next three days, but this did not happen.
12. The Council apologised for any inconvenience and confirmed the service manager had spoken to the crew. The Council subsequently confirmed it had alerted the service manager to the issue and asked that they put their best efforts into returning Mr X’s collections to their fortnightly schedules.
13. As Mr X was not satisfied by the Council’s response, he has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states Mr X has reported two missed collections over the last 12 months. On this basis the Council does not believe there has been a repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling.
14. The Council states reports of missed collections are now reported to a senior officer on a daily basis. Subject to spare capacity the Council will pick up the missed collection within two days. If this is not possible the Council will pick up the waste as soon as possible, but that may be the following week.

Analysis

15. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been failings in the Council's service which amount to fault.
16. It is unclear exactly how many collections were missed. The Council states there were only two missed collections reported, but the documentation suggests several more collections may well have been missed. Mr X’s complained about missed collections on 9 April 2019, this is the day before the Council’s first record of a reported missed collection. However, in his complaint Mr X states he is fed up with having to call to report missed collections. It is unclear why there is no record of any earlier calls.
17. In addition, the records of the reported collections suggest there were two missed collections in April 2019 and two missed collections in May 2019.
18. Having identified fault in the Council's service, I must consider whether this has caused Mr X a significant injustice. Mr X had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling left at his property in April and May 2019 and has been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter. Given the limited number of missed collections over a relatively short period, I consider an apology to be a suitable remedy in this case.

Agreed action

19. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X for the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections in April and May 2019 caused him. The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

20. The Council’s failure to collect Mr X’s recycling amounts to fault causing an injustice for which the Council should apologise.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman