Summary: Mr and Mrs X complained the Council regularly missed waste collections. The Council was at fault. The Council has changed how it collects the street’s waste and Mr X confirmed there have been no further missed collections. The Council has agreed to pay Mr and Mrs X £100 for avoidable time and trouble in reporting the missed collections.

The complaint

1. Mr and Mrs X said that since 2017, the Council regularly missed their bin collections. They said they reported missed collections to the Council on around 40 occasions.
2. Mr and Mrs X said they had been put through a huge amount of stress and inconvenience because of the rubbish building up and failed collections. They said they had also gone to considerable time and trouble reporting missed collections to the Council.

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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. I spoke to Mr X and considered the complaint correspondence with the Council.
6. Mr and Mrs X and the Council, both had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

7. 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.
8. In May 2019, Mrs X complained to the Council about a missed collection. It responded a fortnight later and said it was experiencing ongoing difficulties collecting rubbish from the street because of where cars were parking. It said the crews would make several attempts to access the street to collect the rubbish but if they could not, they would report back to the Council to schedule a further collection. It apologised for the inconvenience this caused.
9. A week after the Council’s response, Mrs X contacted the Council to say that it had not collected the general waste. The Council escalated Mrs X’s complaint to stage two of its procedure.
10. In the stage two response, the Council said that it was looking at a long-term solution to collecting the waste from the street. It said it was considering using a smaller vehicle but that would mean four separate trips to the street to collect all the recycling and general waste. It said it was considering the most effective way to collect the rubbish and hoped to have resolved the problem within the next two months.
11. Miss X asked the Council if it would consider parking the lorry at the end of the road and residents wheeling their bins down for collection. They asked if the Council could consult with residents on the road to come to a solution.
12. On 22 July 2019, the Council sent a letter to Mr and Mrs X. It said it had reviewed the waste collection on the road and decided to move to fortnightly collections with a smaller vehicle. It said it would collect general waste and recycling on alternate weeks. It said it would no-longer collect food waste from the road as it was not cost effective
13. Mr and Mrs X said they were unhappy in how the Council ended the complaint procedure without discussing options for waste collections with residents. They brought their complaint to the Ombudsman.
14. In response to my draft decision the Council said it had 30 missed collections recorded against Mr and Mrs X’s property for the past three years. Mr X reports there have been no further missed collections since the Council started to collect the waste fortnightly.

My findings

15. Mrs X said she reported around 40 missed collections over two years. The Council said it has 30 missed collections recorded against the property over three years. The Council missed collections on multiple occasions; that was fault.
16. The Council has reviewed how it collected waste from Mr and Mrs X’s street which has resolved the fault. However, that does not recognise the avoidable time and trouble Mrs X went to reporting missed collections.

Agreed action

17. Within one month of my final decision the Council has agreed to pay Mr and Mrs X £100 to acknowledge the avoidable time and trouble they went to in reporting missed collections.

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Final decision

18. The Council failed to collect Mr and Mrs X’s waste collections. The Council has agreed to pay them £100 to remedy the injustice caused. Therefore, I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman