Summary: Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled day. The Council’s repeatedly failure to make assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled day. Miss X receives assisted collections and complains that although her neighbours’ waste and recycling is collected, her is repeatedly missed.

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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 Miss X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• sent a statement setting out my draft decision to Miss 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 crews began working to rule on 29 December 2018 and the first full day of industrial action was 19 February 2019.
8. The Council 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.
9. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
10. 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

11. Miss X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling since February 2019. She has reported the missed collections, but the waste and recycling are still not collected. Miss X should receive assisted collections but has to rely on her neighbour to put her bin out for collection for her.
12. The Council’s records show Miss X has reported seven missed household waste collections over the last 12 months. The 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.
13. Miss X reported a missed collection on 25 March 2019 and the Council closed this report on 8 April 2019. This would suggest the collections scheduled for 29 March and 5 April 2019 were also missed. If the Council had made the scheduled collections, it could have closed the report sooner. Having closed this report on 8 April 2019, it is curious that Miss X reported a missed collection the same day, which the Council did not close until 7 May 2019.
14. There are further inconsistencies in the Council’s records for reports of missed collections in May 2019. Miss X reported missed collections on 3, 13 and 29 May 2019, and the Council closed these reports on 21 and 28 May, and 12 June respectively. If, as the records suggest, the Council had collected the missed waste on 7 May 2109, it could have closed the report of 3 May 2019 that day too. Similarly, if it collected the missed waste on 21 May 2019 it could also have closed the report of 13 May 2019 on that day, rather than a week later. It is also surprising if the Council made a collection on 28 May 2019, that Miss X would need to report a missed collection on 29 May 2019.
15. These anomalies call into question the accuracy of the Council’s records. 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. In addition to reporting missed collections, Miss X also made formal complaints about the assisted collection service. In late March 2019, Miss X complained about the number of missed collections there had been. She asked the Council to investigate and make the scheduled collections. The Council’s complaints process states it will investigate and respond to complaints within 15 working days. The Council responded in early May 2019, outside this time frame. It apologised for the delay and for any inconvenience caused by the service failure.
17. The Council stated that since the end of the industrial action it had spoken to the crews and reminded them of their responsibilities. As Miss X had reported another missed collection, the Council advised it had passed her complaint to the assistant service manager. It had also asked for her collections to be monitored for a short period to ensure the bins were collected and returned to her property.
18. As this did not resolve the problem, Miss X asked for her complaint to be reviewed. Despite the Council’s assurances, she was still not receiving assisted collections. The Council confirmed it had alerted the depot manager who would remind the crews of Miss X’s assisted collections, and the need to collect and return her bins to her property.
19. Miss X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint as she still does not receive the assisted collection service. She states that even when she reports a missed collection it is not picked up and she has to rely on her neighbour to help her.
20. In response to my enquiries the Council states the collection crews are aware of the assisted collections on their routes. The Council runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. Properties are then manually added to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Miss X has assisted collection status.
21. The Council set up a period of monitoring to identify and resolve any repeated failures to collect Miss X’s bins. As there were further missed collections during this monitoring period, the Council has extended the monitoring.

Analysis

22. It is clear from the documentation I have received that there have been repeated failings in the Council’s service which amount to fault.
23. The Council accepts that collections have been missed, and that there will have been delays in these missed collections being made. Its records of Miss X’s reported missed collections, when the collections were subsequently made, and the reports closed are incomplete and inconsistent.
24. Given the anomalies in these records I do not consider them to be a reliable indicator of the extent of the problem. I consider it likely that more collections were missed than the Council’s records suggest, and that some collections were only made because of Miss X’s neighbour’s assistance.
25. The Council has not offered an explanation of the missed collections. The Council has confirmed Miss X is registered for assisted collections and this should be recorded on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and in the crew packs. It is therefore unclear why Miss X’s bins are routinely missed when the rest of the street are collected.
26. It is also disappointing that despite the Council’s assurances it had reminded the crew members and regular collections would be made, the service did not improve, and the missed collections continued. There is no evidence the Council carried out the monitoring referred to in its response to Miss X’s initial complaint, but if it did, this has not proved effective.
27. I recognise the Council will monitor Miss X’s collections and would expect this to lead to improvements on the service. But I consider the Council should have done more to address Miss X’s repeated missed collections sooner.
28. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Miss X a significant injustice. Miss X has had to rely on the kindness of a neighbour to present her bins for collection, and when this was not possible has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste left at her property. She has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Miss X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

29. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections has caused.
30. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

31. The Council’s repeatedly failure to make assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman