Summary: There was fault in the inconsistent waste and recycling collection services the complainant has received. The Council has taken steps to improve the service, which appear to have had some effect. However, it has also agreed to recognise the time and trouble Mrs W has been put to in pursuing the matter.

The complaint

1. The complainant, to whom I will refer as Mrs W, says the Council has provided an unreliable waste and recycling collection service for several years.

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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. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I reviewed Mrs W’s correspondence with the Council, and the Council’s records of missed collections at Mrs W’s property.
6. I also sent a draft copy of this decision to each party for their comments.

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What I found

7. The Council contracts its waste collection service to a private firm. However, although the contractor manages the service on a day-to-day basis, the Council retains ultimate responsibility for it. I will therefore refer only to the ‘the Council’ in this decision statement.
8. Wycombe District Council has formed a ‘Joint Waste Team’ with two other local authorities, Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire District Councils. Some of the correspondence I will describe here was written by officers on the Joint Waste Team. For ease, however, I will again simply refer to the ‘Council’ in this decision statement.
9. Mrs W lives in a residential estate, consisting of two blocks of 12 maisonettes each. The Council collects the estate’s waste and recycling from communal bins.
10. Mrs W raised a complaint with the Council by phone in February 2019. The Council wrote to her on 26 February, confirming the scope of the complaint. This included that the waste collection day had changed from Thursdays to Tuesdays without warning or explanation, and that, more generally, the estate had suffered a long history of frequent missed collections.
11. The Council replied to the complaint on 27 February. It apologised for “recent disruption” in collections, and said it was not possible to provide a dedicated collection day for communal sites, although it sought to clear all bins by each Friday.
12. The Council also said an officer had visited Mrs W’s estate, and noted the recycling bins were under-used. The officer had placed stickers on each bin to show what residents should place in each, with the aim of reducing the amount of general waste. The Council said it would continue to monitor collections.
13. After a further complaint from Mrs W, the Council wrote to her again on 29 April. It apologised again for the poor service it had provided. The Council explained there had been a recent increase in the number of properties in the area with communal bins, which had caused operational difficulties and had led to a reorganisation. The Council said it was optimistic these difficulties would be addressed in the near future.
14. The Council also said it had arranged for Mrs W’s estate to be added to its monitoring list. This meant crews would report by phone when they had completed each relevant collection, and a failure to receive this call would give the Council the opportunity to rectify the situation at the time.
15. The Council said Mrs W’s complaint had now completed its procedure, and referred her to the Ombudsman if she wished to pursue it further.
16. Mrs W wrote again to the Council on 13 June. She said she had not received the Council’s previous letter when it was sent, and had only read it when it was forwarded to her by a Council officer on 22 May.
17. Mrs W said the estate was still suffering from repeated missed collections. She said, on one occasion, the crew had taken rubbish from a full waste bin and distributed it to some empty bins, rather than collecting it, and that this was not the first time this had happened. She also said neither of the two types of recycling collection had happened for several weeks, with the bins now overflowing. Mrs W confirmed she would refer her complaint to the Ombudsman.
18. The Council sent a further response to Mrs W on 10 July. It apologised once again for the poor service, and said meetings had now been held with the Joint Waste Team and contractor.
19. The Council said it had instructed the contractor to introduce an additional vehicle and crew into the area, which had begun on 3 July. The Council had implemented a new automated online system to allow residents to report missed collections, which would immediately alert the contractor and allow them to organise a return collection. The Council provided Mrs W a link for this system, and a separate one for reporting issues with how the collections were made, and also a phone number to use instead of the internet if necessary.
20. The Council also said collections at Mrs W’s estate would be discussed during weekly operations meetings until the problems were resolved. A monitoring officer would also continue to make regular visits to the estate to ensure the bins were being emptied, and where possible to prevent local businesses from blocking the street.
21. Mrs W referred her complaint to the Ombudsman on 11 August.

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Analysis

22. Mrs W says there has been a long history of inadequate service at the estate, going back to 2014. She says this has caused a problem with vermin since 2017, with residents having to pay for pest control.
23. The Ombudsman will not generally accept complaints for investigation, where the substantive matter is older than 12 months. This is because it is usually not possible to effectively investigate matters which are older, because of a lack of records, and also because it can be difficult to remedy historical injustice. For this reason, I have investigated events only from August 2018 (12 months before Mrs W made her complaint to the Ombudsman) to date.
24. In addition, and although I accept it is possible they are related, I do not have the means to establish a causal link between a vermin infestation and a poor waste collection service. I must therefore exclude this from my consideration.
25. I asked the Council to provide me with data showing the scheduled collection dates for each type of waste from Mrs W’s estate from August 2018, the dates the Council had received a report of a missed collection, and whether and when a return collection had been completed.
26. In its response, the Council explained it had introduced a new schedule for communal collections in July 2019, with weekly collections of waste from Mrs W’s estate each Tuesday. There is also a weekly recycling collection each Wednesday, with collections for paper and card, and collections for other mixed recycling, on alternate weeks.
27. The Council’s data showed, since these changes were introduced, only one collection of each type had been reported missed from Mrs W’s estate – the waste collection on 6 August, and the recycling collection on 27 November. In both cases, a return collection had been completed two days later.
28. The Council also provided me with a list of dates between August 2018 and July 2019 when it had recorded a missed collection from Mrs W’s estate. This shows missed waste collections on 24 September and 23 November 2018, and 7 January and 19 June 2019. There was also a missed recycling collection on 7 January 2019. Of these, only the waste collection of 19 June 2019 was recorded as having been eventually completed (on 21 June).
29. Mrs W told me, since the new system was introduced, the waste collection has improved significantly. In this respect, the Council’s record appears to be consistent with her account.
30. However, there is no similar consistency between the rest of the Council’s records and Mrs W’s account. She says there were many more missed collections between August 2018 and July 2019 than appear in the Council’s data. Mrs W also says the recycling collections remain inconsistent, even after the schedule change.
31. Ultimately, I cannot meaningfully consolidate the Council’s records with Mrs W’s account. Nor can I speculate on the reasons for the discrepancies. It is possible neither is entirely accurate; and, unfortunately, I have no other means to judge exactly how consistent, or inconsistent, the collections from Mrs W’s estate have been.
32. However, taking all the evidence together, I am satisfied there is enough to say the service Mrs W’s estate has received has been substandard, at the very least before the introduction of the new schedule. I find fault in this respect.
33. I do consider the Council’s responses to her complaints have been, on the whole, encouraging. The response of 27 February reads as something of standard letter, apologising for “recent disruption”, which suggests there may have been wider problems at the time. It does not really address the specific points Mrs W had raised.
34. However, the two later responses are more tailored, and I am satisfied they take the matter seriously. The monitoring measures introduced by the Council, followed by Mrs W’s estate being a standing item on the weekly operation meetings, are positive steps.
35. As I have said, by Mrs W’s own account, the waste collection has improved significantly since July, although she still reports problem with the recycling collections.
36. Unfortunately, I cannot see what recommendations for service improvement the Ombudsman could make here. In previous similar complaints, we have recommended the introduction of monitoring, but the Council has already done this, and so there is no value to such a recommendation.
37. I can therefore only encourage Mrs W to continue reporting matters promptly to the Council as they arise, using the contact point it has provided. I would also expect the Council to continue acting on Mrs W’s reports, and seeking to identify and address problems as effectively as possible.
38. Separately, I consider Mrs W has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in pursuing her complaint, both with the Council and the Ombudsman. This is an injustice, and I recommend the Council offer her a small financial remedy to recognise this.

Agreed action

39. Within one month of the date of my final decision, the Council has agreed to offer Mrs W £100 in recognition of her time and trouble in pursuing this complaint.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman