Summary: Miss X complained the Council failed to collect general waste on the scheduled days and failed to collect recycling. The Council was at fault for missed recycling collections. That has put Miss X to avoidable time and trouble for having to report missed collections. The Council has agreed to review how it investigates complaints about missed waste collections; apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 for the delay in escalating and investigating the problems with collections.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council failed to collect general waste on the scheduled days and failed to collect recycling. She said despite complaining, the Council failed to improve its service. She said she had to report missed collections on a weekly basis which put her to avoidable time and trouble.

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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 read the complaint provided by Miss X and made enquiries of the Council.
5. The Council and Miss X both had the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

6. Councils have a duty to collect and dispose of household waste and they may specify when and where bins can be left for emptying. (Environmental Protection Act 1990, sections 45, 46 and 48). The Council collects recycling waste fortnightly.
7. Residents can report missed collections online or by telephone. The Council says that once it has received a report of a missed collection, its computer system automatically creates a request for a new collection within the next week.

What happened

8. Miss X moved into her house at the start of 2019. In April 2019, she reported a missed recycling collection to the Council. On 19 June, Miss X emailed the Council about a further missed collection. She said that she had been contacting the Council for months about missed recycling collections and that the bin men left rubbish on the street leaving the area looking like a dump.
9. The Council responded and said it had reminded the bin crew about its responsibility to collect rubbish. It said that if this did not resolve the problem to contact it again.
10. On 9 July 2019, Miss X reported a further missed collection. She said that was the fifth in a row. The Council apologised and said it had passed her complaint to the Service Manager. Miss X reported two further missed collections in July.
11. On 6 August 2019, the Council sent its stage two response. It said it would pass her complaint to a waste supervisor, who would arrange a visit to the property to investigate the issues with waste collections. It said she had reached the end of the complaint’s procedure.
12. Miss X subsequently reported missed recycling on 28 August and 24 September 2019.

The Council’s response to enquiries

13. The Council’s records show that between April and September 2019, Miss X reported nine missed collections. Seven of those missed collections were for recycling waste.
14. The records show the Council escalated Miss X’s complaint about missed collections on 1 October 2019.
15. The Council said there were access difficulties to Miss X’s property and to overcome these it had started using smaller vehicles for recycling collections. It made that change on 21 October 2019. It said it was monitoring collections and asking the waste collection drivers to report back any access issues so they could be dealt with.

My findings

16. The Council failed to collect Miss X’s recycling waste on seven, out of a possible twelve occasions between 30 April and 24 September 2019. Its records indicate that it did not escalate her complaint and investigate what the difficulties with the collections were until after it had completed the complaints procedure. That delayed how quickly the Council could have resolved the collection difficulties.
17. Both the above were fault. That fault has caused Miss X an injustice as she has gone to avoidable time and trouble in having to report ongoing missed collections.

Agreed action

18. Within one month of my final decision the Council has agreed to:
• Review how it deals with reports of waste collection service failures and when it escalates these for further investigation.
• Apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 for the missed collections and the delay in escalating the problems with collections for further investigation.
19. The Council is already monitoring Miss X’s waste collections. It should continue to do that for three months following my final decision.

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Final decision

20. The Council was at fault for missed waste collections. It has agreed to review how it deals with service requests and investigates complaints about missed collections. Therefore, I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman