Summary: The Council missed several recycling waste collections at the complainant’s property, which is fault and a minor injustice. However, the Council has taken steps to resolve the problem, and there is no evidence it is endemic or ongoing. The Ombudsman has therefore completed his investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, to whom I will refer as Ms W, says the Council missed several recycling waste collections from her property over a period of a few months. She also says the Council took a long time to return after she reported the missed collections.

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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. I reviewed the Council’s responses to Ms W’s complaints, and its internal notes.
5. I also shared a draft copy of this decision with each party for their comments.

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What I found

6. On 14 January 2019, Ms W contacted the Council to make a complaint. She said the last three fortnightly recycling collections for her building (a block of flats) had been missed.
7. On 25 January, the Council called and left a message for Ms W in response. It explained there was a new driver on the collection route and Ms W’s address had not been added to the schedule. It said the waste had now been collected, and the schedule updated.
8. On 8 April, Ms W raised another complaint. She said the block had not had a collection for four weeks, and highlighted the block was currently suffering a vermin problem.
9. The Council replied on 9 May. It apologised for the missed collections, and said it had spoken to the collection crews’ supervisors. Collections were now taking place as scheduled.
10. Ms W referred her complaint to the Ombudsman on 20 June. Since then, she says there has been another missed collection on 12 August, which the Council returned to collect after one week.

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Analysis

11. The Council’s notes show Ms W first reported a missed collection on 8 January, and then called again about the same collection on 11 January. It was eventually completed on 14 January.
12. The Council’s notes then say Ms W reported a further missed collection, and made her first complaint, on 17 January. The Council recorded this as resolved on 25 January, after addressing the issue with the new driver.
13. However, the Council originally provided us with an email recording Ms W’s first complaint on 14 January, not 17 January. So it is a little difficult to consolidate these two sources of information.
14. The Council’s notes then show Ms W reported another missed collection on 5 April, and again on 8 April (for the same collection), which the Council returned to on 9 April.
15. And Ms W says there was another missed collection on 12 August.
16. Taking this together, it is clear there have been some problems with Ms W’s recycling collections. However, the Council’s website says it will not normally return to missed recycling collections (as distinct from general waste, for which it will return), but will collect any excess recycling on its next scheduled visit. So I cannot say, on the evidence, the Council has breached its ‘return’ policy after she had reported a missed collection.
17. Either way, it is fault there were missed collections.
18. However, and although I accept Ms W was concerned about exacerbating the vermin problem, I do not consider this represents a serious injustice which would warrant a remedy. The missed collections, while clearly annoying, were relatively infrequent – in January, April and August. This does not suggest an endemic problem.
19. There is no evidence the vermin problem was caused by the missed collections, although I accept it would not have helped the situation. However, I do consider it relevant the missed collections were for recycling, which presents less of an obvious hygiene issue than, for example, general or food waste.
20. So I do not recommend any remedy here.
21. I would encourage Ms W to make a further complaint to the Council, if missed collections start to become a more endemic problem. However, on the information available now, I do not consider the Ombudsman can add anything more here.

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Final decision

22. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault causing injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman