Summary: Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling since September 2018. Miss X states the Council agreed to provide assisted collections in April 2019 but has failed to make any assisted collections. The Council’s repeated failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections since September 2018 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 since September 2018. Miss X states the Council agreed to provide assisted collections in April 2019 but has failed to make any assisted collections.
2. Miss X also complains that the Council’s responses to her complaints do not address her concerns and have not resolved the problem.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
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. 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

6. 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.
7. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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

13. Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling since the Council changed its working patterns in September 2018. She states she has not been advised of a different collection point for the bins, but a neighbour has an informal agreement to move some of the neighbours’ bins to the top of the road for collection. Miss X states the collection crew told her neighbour they could not bring the collection vehicle down the road where Miss X’s bins are as it the vehicle is too big. Miss X she disputes this. She states she has lived in her property for over 20 years and her bins have always been collected from the same point.
14. In 2019 Miss X asked for assisted collections. The Council agreed to provide this service on 1 April 2019, but Miss X states this did not improve the situation as her bins were still not collected.
15. The Council’s records show Miss X has reported 30 missed household waste collections and 14 missed recycling collections since September 2018. Of these 19 household collections and 11 recycling collections were missed since 1 April 2019 when Miss X should have received assisted collections. Most, but not all, of the reports are closed which suggests the collections have 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.
16. 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.
17. In addition to missed collections Miss X made formal complaints about the failings in the service. In May 2019 Miss X complained she should have received an assisted collection service since 1 April 2019, but the Council had not collected her household waste or recycling since the strike ended. She reported that during the industrial action the collection vehicle had come down the street without a problem, but the crew were now saying the road was too narrow for the vehicle. Miss X stated that her neighbour was having to take the waste to the tip for her.
18. In its response the Council apologised for any inconvenience. It had passed Miss X’s complaint to the service manager who had reminded the crew of Miss X’s assisted collections and instructed them to make all collections from her street. As this did not resolve the problem, Miss X asked for her complaint to be reviewed. The Council apologised for the poor service and reminded the crews again to ensure Miss X’s assisted collections were made.
19. Miss X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. She states that despite repeated assurances that the Council had reminded the crews and collections would be made, her bins were still not collected.
20. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. Properties are then manually added 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 Miss X has assisted collection status.
21. The Council states it is now monitoring Miss X’s household waste and recycling collections. This monitoring is initially for a month but can be extended if necessary. The Council anticipates this monitoring will be able to clearly identify root causes and provide a resolution to the missed collections. It states that as Miss X’s bins cannot be easily stored at the front of her property it will need to identify, and agree with Miss X, an appropriate storage point for her bins.
22. In relation to Miss X’s concerns about the response to her complaints the Council states it uses template responses to ensure consistency of approach and content. The templates are intended to address the current situation and are regularly reviewed and updated. The Council states the information it gave Miss X at the time of each event was accurate regarding the actions that had been taken.

Analysis

23. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s service which amount to fault.
24. The Council accepts that collections have been missed, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Reports from August and September 2019 are still open, which suggests either that the collections have still not been made, or poor record keeping by the Council. Either way, this is not satisfactory.
25. It is also disappointing, given the sheer number of missed collections, that the Council was not more proactive in resolving the problem. The Council states the depot can monitor reports of missed collections by analysing their dropped work spreadsheets to see if certain streets/addresses appear frequently. And mobile technology can also be used to flag up repeat missed collections.
26. I would therefore have expected this level of missed collections to have alerted the Council to a potential problem. This should then have prompted an investigation to identify and resolve the issue. I recognise the Council is now monitoring Miss X’s collections and this should have a positive effect in identifying and resolving issues. But I consider the Council should have done more to address Miss X’s repeated missed collections much sooner.
27. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council has responded to Miss X’s complaints. The responses do not address Miss X’s concerns about the collection crews not bringing the vehicles down her street and do not offer any explanation for the missed collections. Escalating the complaint to the service manager and reminding crews to make the collections was not effective in resolving the problem. Despite the Council’s apologies and assurances, the poor service continued.
28. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Miss X an injustice. Miss X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected household waste and recycling left at her property over a significant period. She has also had to rely on the kindness of her neighbours who have made regular trips to the tip. Miss X has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections, and the Council’s poor complaint responses. She has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

29. 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 since September 2018 has caused.
30. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

31. The Council’s repeated failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections since September 2018 amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman