Summary: Mrs X complains the Council failed to collect the recycling from her street for four months. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling over a sustained period amounts to fault. This fault has caused an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X complains the Council failed to collect her recycling for four months. Mrs X states that despite reassurances collections would be made as scheduled, the Council did not make any recycling collections from the properties on her street until the end of June 2019.

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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 Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• sent a statement setting out my draft decision to Mrs 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. 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 Council then 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.
8. 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

9. Mrs X complains the Council failed to collect the recycling from her street for over three months. This led to an accumulation of waste which she and her neighbours had to take to the recycling centre.
10. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported four missed recycling collections between April and June 2019. Other residents on Mrs X’s street also reported missed collections during this period and further missed collections in October and November 2019.
11. Mrs X’s 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. Mrs X reported missed collections on 4 and 18 April 2019. The Council closed the first report on 2 May 2019 but did not close the second until 20 May 2019. It is unclear why, if the Council collected the missed waste on 2 May 2019, it did not close both reports the same day.
13. It is also curious that Mrs X reported a further missed collection on 2 May 2019. The Council did not close this report until 11 June 2019, despite apparently making collections on 2 and 20 May 2019.
14. According to the Council’s records Mrs X reported another missed collection on 13 June 2019, which it closed six weeks later on 30 July 2019. It is surprising that Mrs X would need to report a missed collection on 13 June, if the Council collected the recycling on 11 June 2019. The time taken to close this report also suggests the collections scheduled for 27 June, and 11 and 25 July 2019 may also have been missed. If the Council had made these collections, it could have closed the reports on these days.
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. As well as reporting the missed collections, Mrs X also complained to the Council about the collection service. In early May 2019 Mr X complained the Council had not collected the recycling from her street for three months. She said she had contacted the Council several times to report missed collections and been told they would be made but the recycling had not been collected. Mrs X chased the Council on 20 May 2019 as the recycling had still not been collected.
17. The Council’s apologised for the missed collections and the inconvenience caused. It explained the service had been affected by disruptions since January which had resulted in missed collections. There were still a number of ongoing operational difficulties which it was working hard to resolve.
18. Mrs X was not satisfied with the Council’s response and asked it to review her complaint. In response the Council reiterated there were still a number of operational issues that needed attending to, and that the depot intended to achieve a prompt resolution.
19. Mrs X asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. Mrs X states she now receives regular recycling collections but would like an explanation for the failure to collect her recycling for four months.
20. In response to my enquiries the Council notes Mrs X and other residents on her street reported missed collections between April and June 2019. It states there have been no further reports of missed collections and the service appears to be working normally. The Council has not offered an explanation for the missed collections but has arranged to monitor collections during January 2020 to identify any problems.

Analysis

21. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s service which amount to fault.
22. The Council accepts that collections have been missed, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Its records of Mrs X’s reported missed collections, when the collections were subsequently made, and the reports closed are incomplete and inconsistent. They suggest that collections were made, when Mrs X complains the recycling was not collected for over three months.
23. As set out above, the accuracy of the Council’s records is questionable, and I do not consider them to be a reliable indicator of the extent of the missed collections. I consider it likely that many more collections were missed than the Council’s records suggest.
24. The Council’s responses to Mrs X’s complaints do not dispute her assertion that the recycling was not collected from her street for over three months. They are generalised responses which do not address Mrs X’s specific concerns or provide a time frame for a resolution.
25. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mrs X an injustice. Mrs X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling left at her property, including making trips to the recycling centre. This would not have been necessary of the Council had collected the recycling as scheduled. Mrs X has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. And she has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

26. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £100 in recognition of the frustration, and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections for a sustained period has caused.
27. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

28. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling over a sustained period amounts to fault. This fault has caused an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman