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 they are missed. Miss X also complains that although she receives assisted collections, when her bins are collected, they are not returned to the storage point. The Council’s repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. As does the Council’s failure to properly address Miss X’s complaints or resolve the problem. These faults have 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 or in a timely manner when they are missed. Miss X receives assisted collections and complains that although her neighbours’ waste and recycling is collected, hers is repeatedly missed.
2. Miss X also complains that when her bins are collected, they are not returned to the storage point.

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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 information provided by Miss X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Miss X; and
• 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. 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.
9. 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

10. Miss X receives assisted collections. She complains that the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling, despite collecting both from her neighbours’ properties.
11. The Council’s records show Miss X has reported 17 missed household waste collections and six missed recycling collections since February 2019. The reports are all closed which indicates the missed collections have since been made. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the collections were all made in a timely manner. The records also suggest that other collections were also missed.
12. For example, Miss X reported a missed household collection on 14 March 2019 and the Council closed this report four weeks later, on 11 April 2019. This suggests that the intervening collections were also missed, particularly as Miss X also reported a missed household collection on 3 April 2019. The Council closed Miss X’s report of 3 April 2019 on 17 April 2019. This is curious as the if the Council had collected Miss X’s household waste on 11 April 2019, it could have closed the report of 3 April 2019 on this date as well.
13. Similarly, Miss X reported missed household waste collections on 31 May 2019 and 7 June 2019. The Council closed these reports on 17 June 2019 and 24 June 2019 respectively. Had the Council collected Miss X’s waste on 17 June 2019, it could have closed both reports that day. Such inconsistencies continue throughout the Council’s records.
14. A further anomaly is that Miss X’s report of a missed household collection on 3 May 2019 is recorded as closed on 2 May 2019, that is the day before it was reported.
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.
16. Miss X also disputes that the collections were made as the records suggest. She states that she could see that her online reports had been closed, even though the waste had not been collected.
17. In addition to reporting missed collections, Miss X also made complaints to the Council. On 10 May 2019 Miss X complained about ongoing problems with her assisted collections. She reported that about five weeks earlier she saw members of the collection crew looking in through her windows, and her bins have not been collected since. Miss X was concerned the crews had decided she did not meet the requirements for assisted collections and were now not collecting her household waste. This is not the collection crew’s role or decision and Miss X asked for the matter to be investigated.
18. The Council apologised for the poor service and confirmed it had passed the matter to the service manager who had reminded the crew of Miss X’s assisted collections.
19. Miss X was not satisfied with the response and asked for her complaint to be considered further. She stated that as her household waste had not been collected for four weeks, her daughter had moved the bin and excess bags to the roadside. The collection crew had emptied the bin, but not taken the bags, and had not returned her bins to her property. Miss X complained that although the Council had agreed to provide assisted collections her bins were not emptied unless she could get someone to move them to the gate. Even when the bins were emptied, they were not returned to her property.
20. In response the Council stated it had alerted the service manager who would remind the household and recycling crews of Miss X’s assisted collections and the need to be pick up from and return the bins to the same point. It also stated it would carry out periodic monitoring to ensure this was being followed.
21. As this did not resolve the problem, Miss X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month to produce 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 to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology in the collection vehicle and on a handheld device. The records confirm that Miss X receives assisted collections.
22. The Council has been unable to identify the exact reasons for Miss X’s repeated missed assisted household and recycling collections. It states a manager visited Miss X on 15 October 2019 and Miss X confirmed that both her assisted collection services have been carried out as scheduled over the last month.
23. The Council has set up monitoring of Miss X’s assisted household and recycling collections. This is initially for a month, but the monitoring can be extended, if required.

Analysis

24. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s service which amount to fault.
25. The Council accepts that collections have been missed, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Its records of missed collections appear to be inaccurate or incomplete to the extent I do not consider them to be a reliable indication of when collections were missed, or household waste and recycling were collected from Miss X’s property. It is concerning that Miss X states her online reports were marked as closed when the bins had still not been collected.
26. I consider it likely that there were many more missed collections than the Council’s records suggest. It is also likely that some collections were only made because Miss X arranged for someone else to put her bins out.
27. It is 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.
28. 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 unclear whether the Council carried out the periodic monitoring it said it would do, or how effective this was. Miss X stated in mid-September 2019 that her household waste had not been collected for four weeks. The service appears to have improved since then and I recognise the Council is now monitoring Miss X’s collections. This should also lead to an improvement.
29. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Miss X a significant injustice. Miss X has had to rely on other people to put her bins out for collection. When this has not been possible, she has had to find ways to manage the uncollected household waste and recycling left at her property, sometimes for several weeks at a time.
30. Miss X has experienced frustration and disappointment that despite her complaints and reporting of problems the missed collections continued. She has also been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter.

Agreed action

31. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections has caused.
32. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

33. The Council’s repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. As does the Council’s failure to properly address Miss X’s complaints or resolve the problem. These faults have caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman