Trafford Council (19 008 221)

Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 12 Mar 2020

Summary: All six complainants complain about the Council’s waste and refuse collection service. In particular, they complain about a failure to return bins to the correct location and missed garden and food waste collections.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaints and found fault. In five of the cases the fault caused injustice.

Recommendations

We welcome the service changes the Council has already made. In addition to the requirements set out above, the Council has agreed to take the following
action to remedy the injustice identified in this report.

  • Apologise to each of the complainants for the frustration and inconvenience caused by the collection problems.
  • Monitor their waste collections for twelve collections.
  • Give Mr F’s crew photographs of where the bins are to be left and ask the crew driver to sign for these instructions.
  • Report the results of the monitoring to us and to the complainants within a month of the twelfth collection. If the monitoring shows a need for further action, the report will explain what action the Council will take.
  • Pay Mr and Mrs D £150 to acknowledge injustice caused over a number of years.
  • Pay Mrs B, Mrs C, Mr F and Mrs G £100 to acknowledge the time and trouble and difficulties they were caused.
  • Review its missed collection report and complaints process with a view to introducing a step where results of supervisor monitoring can be assessed, or residents can talk to the supervisor about the problem, and the matter given a chance to be resolved before automatic escalation to us.
  • Ask the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider whether the recent changes to the waste collection service have brought about service improvements.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council's response: 14 September 2020.

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