Summary: Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled days, or in a timely manner when collections are missed. Mr X also complains the Council has failed to adequately respond to his complaints or explain why collections are not made. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling 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 days, or in a timely manner when collections are missed. Mr X states the Council collects recycling from other properties on his estate but his is 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. 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 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

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 has previously complained to the Ombudsman about missed household waste and recycling collections during the Autumn of 2018.
9. This complaint relates to missed household waste and recycling collections since April 2019. Mr X states the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled day, despite collecting his neighbours’ recycling.
10. The Council states Mr X reported four missed recycling collections and one missed household waste collection between April and June 2019. The reports are closed and indicate the missed collections were made on/ around the next scheduled collection day. However, there are discrepancies in the dates the reports were closed.
11. For example, Mr X reported missed collections on 22 May, 4 June and 18 June 2019, and the Council closed these reports on 5 June, 19 June and 3 July respectively. This is curious as if the Council collected the missed recycling on 5 June 2019 it could also have closed report from 4 June 2019 that day. Similarly, if the Council collected the missed recycling on 19 June 2019, it could have closed the report of 18 June 2019 that day too.
12. The Council states there may be a delay between the missed collections being made and the report being closed, but it has not provided evidence of the dates the missed collections were made where they are different to the date the report was closed.
13. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also complained to the Council about the level of service he was receiving. In his complaint of 18 April 2019 Mr X reported missed household waste and recycling collections and stated that his recycling had not been collected for four weeks.
14. In its response, the Council noted Mr X had last reported a missed collection in January 2019. There had been no further reports of missed collection and the Council suggested this was an indication the problem had been resolved. Mr X wrote to the Council explaining his complaint was not about missed collections in January 2019, but rather the Council’s recent repeated failure to collect his household waste and recycling.
15. Mr X complained again in early June 2019. He stated his recycling had again not been collected for four weeks. He asked the Council to explain why the crew kept missing his bins and to confirm what he should do with the build up of waste as the crews do will not take the excess. The Council apologised for the missed collections. It confirmed it had escalated the matter to the service manager so they could put their best efforts into returning the recycling collections to the fortnightly collections.
16. As the following recycling collection was missed, Mr X wrote to the Council to complain again. He stated he had seen the recycling lorry enter his estate early that morning and empty some recycling bins, but not his. Mr X asserted the Council was discriminating against him by not collecting his recycling when it collected his neighbours. The Council did not respond to Mr X.
17. Mr X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaints about the missed collections. He states he stopped reporting missed collections to the Council as it did not achieve anything. His recycling was not collected, and the Council offered no explanation for the poor service. Mr X states the problems continued and advised us in early September 2019 that his recycling had not been collected since June 2019. Mr X states the service has however improved since the second week of October 2019.
18. In response to my enquiries the Council states Mr X lives on a relatively new housing development with narrow roads. Because of this, access is restricted for a standard refuse collection or recycling vehicle. The Council has transferred recycling collections to a narrower “alley cat” vehicle and states this has proved to be a success as Mr X has not reported a missed recycling collection since 18 June 2019.
19. The Council states it will monitor Mr X’s household waste and recycling collections for a month, from 19 November until Wednesday, 11 December. It will extend this period of monitoring if required.

Analysis

20. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s service which amount to fault.
21. The Council accepts that collections have been missed, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Based on the information available I consider it likely that more than the five collections the Council has identified were missed. Mr X stopped reporting missed collections to the Council over the summer when he contacted in Ombudsman.
22. This failure to collect Mr X’s recycling on a regular basis amounts to fault. It is particularly disappointing that the Council attributes the missed collections to a problem with access. The Council offered the same explanation in response to our enquiries on Mr X’s previous complaint. The Council was aware the standard vehicles had difficulty accessing Mr X’s street and confirmed it would use alley cat vehicles when access was restricted. This appears to have led to some improvement in the service in early 2019 but did not resolve the problem as missed collections began again in the Spring of 2019.
23. I recognise the Council has now allocated an alley cat vehicle to Mr X’s round and the service has improved, but I consider the Council should have taken this action sooner.
24. 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 recycling left at his property and has made regular trips to the recycling centre to dispose of it himself. Mr X has also experienced frustration and disappointment, that the problem has not been resolved following his earlier complaint. And he has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

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Agreed action

25. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £100 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections since April 2018 has caused.
26. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

27. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman