Summary: Mr X complains that although he should receive assisted collections, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled day or soon after when it misses collections. When the Council collects his recycling, the collection crew do not return his bin to his property. The Council’s repeatedly failure to make assisted recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled day or soon after when it misses collections. Mr X receives assisted collections and complains that when the Council collects his recycling, the collection crew do not return his bin to his property.

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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:
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mr X; 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. In September 2018 the Council introduced a new operating model. Under this model, scheduled collection days remained the same, but the collection rounds/routes changed.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.

What happened here

12. Mr X states that although he is registered to receive assisted collections the Council routinely fails to collect his recycling, and when it does, the crew do not return his bin. Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council in October 2018. He complained the Council had not collected his recycling for five weeks. He asked the Council to empty his bin and collect the excess waste.
13. The Council’s response apologised for the continued difficulties with Mr X’s collections. It stated a manager would interview the collection crew and instruct them to make regular collections. The Council also confirmed it had included Mr X’s property on the crews check list so that even if the regular driver is off, they will know Mr X receives assisted collections and will collect the waste.
14. This did not resolve the problem and the Council missed further collections. The Council’s records show Mr X reported missed collections in April and May 2019. The Council closed the reported in April the following day but did not close the report in May 2019 until July 2019, seven weeks later. This would suggest there were further missed collections in June and July 2019. Had the Council made the scheduled collections it could have closed the reports sooner.
15. The Council states there may be a delay between the missed collections being made and the report being closed, so it is not necessarily the case that the intervening collections were also missed. However, the Council has not provided evidence of the dates the missed collections were made where they are different to the date the report was closed.
16. Mr X also contacted the Ombudsman at the end of May 2019. He complained of regular problems with the recycling collection and stated the Council had not collected his recycling for six weeks. We referred Mr X’s complaint back to the Council so that it could complete its complaint process.
17. The Council confirmed it had escalated Mr X’s complaint to the depot manager who would remind the crews to collect and return his bins to his property. The Council also confirmed it would carry out periodic monitoring to ensure the crews followed these instructions.
18. It is unclear whether the Council carried out this monitoring, but the problems with missed collections and Mr X’s bins not being returned continued. Mr X contacted the Ombudsman again in September 2019 and asked us to investigate his complaint. Mr X states officers visited him, and the service improved for a few weeks, but then the Council missed collections again and when there were collections, the crew left his bin out on the street.
19. In response to my enquiries the Council states there were several operational issues between September 2018 and March 2019 which impacted on recycling collections. This included the introduction of 5 day working and industrial action. There were also resourcing issues in October 2019 which led to it dropping Mr X’s round.
20. The Council states collection crews are aware which properties on their rounds are registered for assisted collections. It states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Mr X has assisted collection status.
21. The Council will monitor Mr X’s assisted recycling collections for a three-month period try and identify and resolve any issues with Mr X’s recycling collections

Analysis

22. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s assisted collection service which amount to fault.
23. The Council accepts that it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Although its records show Mr X has only reported two missed collections, I consider it likely the Council missed many more.
24. The Council has confirmed Mr X is registered for assisted collections, so this should be recorded on mobile technology in the collection vehicles and in the crew packs. When the Council empties Mr X’s bins, the crews collect Mr X’s bins from the front of his property, which indicates they are aware he receives assisted collections. It is therefore unclear why it misses collections, or why the crews leave his bin on the street rather than returning them to his property.
25. There is no evidence the Council carried out the periodic monitoring referred to in its response to Mr X’s complaint, but if it did this does not appear to have been effective in resolving the problem. 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/ the crews did not return his bins.
26. I recognise the Council has now arranged a longer period of monitoring and would expect this to lead to an improvement in service. But I consider the Council could have taken action to resolve this matter sooner.
27. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling left at his property and has had to rely on other people to return his bin if it was collected. Mr X is terminally ill and has experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the poor service and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem, at what is already difficult time for him. He has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

28. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £300 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections has caused.
29. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

30. The Council’s repeatedly failure to make assisted recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman