Summary: Ms X complains the Council was at fault as it missed her waste and recycling assisted collections. We found fault as collections were missed on occasions. The Council has already apologised to Ms X and taking action to ensure she receives an assisted collection. This is suitable action for the Council to take so we are completing our investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant whom I shall refer to as Ms X complains the Council has missed some of her assisted waste collections since 2016 despite her complaining about it. Ms X says it means she must call the Council to have it make an additional collection of the waste.
2. Ms X says her general waste is usually collected but it is her recycling collection that is missed despite the collection crew taking her neighbours’ recycling boxes.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated Ms X’s complaints about missed assisted collections from 2019 onwards. The final section of the statement explains my reasons for not investigating Ms X’s complaints of missed collections from 2016.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

5. 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)
6. 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

7. I have read the papers submitted by Ms X and spoken to her about the complaint. I considered the Council’s comments on the complaint and the supporting documents it provided.
8. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

The Council’s refuse collection service and assisted collections

9. The Council’s waste collection service was carried out by a contractor between July 2010 and July 2020. It offers an assisted collection service to residents who are over 70 or have a medical reason why they cannot put their refuse bins and boxes out to the kerb side on collection day. Residents can specify the location they want their waste collected from under an assisted collection. If there is a health and safety risk to the collection crew a supervisor will discuss an alternative collection point with the resident.
10. Once the Council agrees to an assisted collection it is added to a round. Information on the collection rounds are kept in folders in the cabs of the refuse lorries so the crew can view them before or during a round. The Council adds a crew note to the front of the folder to alert of any new assisted collections. The Council has identified an issue when there is an operational need to use a different vehicle to complete a round. The secondary crew do not have access to the folders so this may lead to some assisted collections being missed occasionally.
11. The Council expects residents to report any missed assisted collections directly to the contractor by phone or using an online missed collections log. Once the missed collections are logged and found to be due to the crew then the policy is to return within two days to collect. If a resident does not put the bins and boxes out by 6 am on the specified collection day or the waste is contaminated the contractor does not come back to collect it.
12. The Council becomes involved in missed assisted collections if contacted directly or the contractor does not resolve matters. The Council contacts the contractor to find out why the collection was missed. If it is due to an error by the crew the Council issues additional crew notes for the next four collections at least reminding of the assisted collection. If the matter is not resolved the Council asks a supervisor to ensure the crew are aware of the collection point.

Background to the complaint

13. Ms X lives in a house with steps up from the front of her property to the road. Ms X receives an assisted collection from the Council because she cannot manoeuvre her bin to a collection point in the road. Instead Ms X places her waste bins and recycling boxes outside her front door by 6 am on the specified collection day. The collection crew carry them up the steps to empty them into the refuse lorry. The collection crew then return Ms X’s bins and boxes to her property.
14. Ms X says the road she lives on is narrow and many residents park cars along the road causing access problems.
15. The Council received a complaint from Ms X and her family in 2016 that the collections crews did not return emptied recycling boxes to the agreed collection point. The Council investigated Ms X’s complaint, agreed it was unacceptable as it had been going on for some time and apologised. The Council arranged for a supervisor to visit the property and ensure the collection crew had clear notification of the assisted collection point. The Council gave Ms X £25 in compensation.
16. Ms X complained to the Council about three missed assisted recycling collections in 2017. The Council contacted the contractor to arrange collections. Ms X said the police contacted her to report her son’s car was blocking access for the refuse lorries to the road. Ms X considered the lorry could get passed and the collection crew had a vendetta against her.
17. The Council told Ms X it had previously dealt with her complaint and to complain to the Ombudsman. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman who referred it to the Council to give it an opportunity to respond to Ms X’s concerns as she had not completed the Council’s complaints procedure.
18. Ms X made a further report of a missed collection in 2017. The Council told Ms X its contractor was having difficulties with the recycling collections and making additional resources available to tackle the issue. The Council asked Ms X to report any missed collections using the online log.
19. Ms X made three complaints about missed collections in 2018. The Council responded to the reports, issued reminders to the collection crew, and arranged for the missed collections to be made.
20. In February 2019 Ms X reported a missed waste and recycling collection. The Council passed the report to the contractor to deal with. Ms X made a further report in May 2019 of a missed collection and one in June 2019. The Council responded, contacted the contractor to deal with it and arranged collection. The documents provided show the collections were made following the Council’s reports. The Council advised Ms X to formally complain about the missed collections.
21. Ms X reported a missed collection in August 2019 alleging it was due to her son complaining the refuse lorry had hit his car. The Council says it has no record of a report of damage to a car but asked the contractor to investigate the missed collection. The contractor reported the crew had been back to Ms X’s property but could not find any bins put out. The Council reminded Ms X to put the bins out by 6 am on collection day.
22. Ms X made a formal complaint to the Council. It considered her concerns. The Council said the contractor reported there were times when vehicles parked so it could not access the road to do all the collections.
23. The Council said it was aware collections had been missed at times throughout Torbay and the contractor was working to rectify this. The Council said it was unfortunate Ms X’s bins had been missed on occasions and apologised. The Council issued reminders to the collection crews about the assisted collection. It asked the contractor to arrange for the crew to call a supervisor after collecting Ms X’s waste and recycling for a few weeks to ensure it happened.
24. In October 2019 Ms X reported a missed recycling collection to the Council. The contractor said Ms X did not report a missed collection to it and she had put the box out too late for a collection.
25. Ms X raised further missed collections in January 2020. The Council asked the contractor to investigate. The contractor reported Ms X’s road had been blocked due to a parked car, but the crew still did a collection from Ms X’s property.
26. Ms X complained of a missed collection in February 2020. On investigation the contractor reported the crew had been that day to collect the recycling box from Ms X’s property. The crew returned following the report of a missed collection and found boxes not put out previously. The crew had photographic evidence to support those comments. The crew emptied the boxes and returned them to Ms X’s collection point.
27. Ms X reported an incident in May 2020 alleging an incident between the crew and her son. The crew provided CCTV footage of the incident which corroborated the crew’s description of events. The contractor said the crew had not collected Ms X’s waste as a result.
28. In June and July 2020, the contractor reported it could not access the road on occasions because of a parked car, so it missed some collections.

Current situation

29. The Council decide not to renew its contract with the contractor and set up its own company to do waste collections. The new company started in July 2020. To improve the service the Council invested in technology to overcome the issue of secondary crews being unaware of assisted collections and reduce paperwork. The Council says each refuse lorry has a tablet displaying the crew’s round for the day broken down into individual roads. This flags up any assisted collections and crews must confirm completion. Secondary crews can also access the information so this should reduce the number of missed assisted collections.
30. The Council is rolling out the technology with training over the next few months but unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed introduction of the new system.
31. The Council accepts there have been some issues with Ms X’s assisted collection. However there have been incidents when Ms X’s son has parked his car and blocked the collections crews’ access to properties, including Ms X’s. The Council says Ms X has also admitted putting her boxes out too late for collection, so she must wait for the next collection date. But to ensure Ms X has a general and recycling assisted collection it will arrange for the new company to photograph the collection and call the supervisor once the collection is completed. The supervisor will contact the crew if no call to make sure it is done.
32. The Council says Ms X needs to put her bins and boxes out for collection for 6 am in the agreed location. However, the parked vehicle on the corner of the road which can lead to missed collections is outside the control of the Council and company. The new company’s policy is for crews to attempt to access a road at least twice in one day if they cannot gain access on the first visit.
33. The Council has confirmed the monitoring has been carried out and there have been no reports of missed assisted collections from Ms X for several months.

My assessment

34. The Council’s documents show it contacted the contractor during 2019 and 2020 when Ms X reported missed assisted collections. The contractor then collected Ms X’s missed assisted collections. The Council accepts there were issues with the collection crews not always being aware of Ms X’s assisted collection waste and recycling as the information could not be passed on to secondary collection crews. I consider this is fault by the Council as it has not always carried out an assisted collection of Ms X’s bins and boxes.
35. However, the Council’s investigations found that some missed collections were outside of its control such as Ms X’s son allegedly parking a car in places which prevent the refuse lorry accessing the road. The Council says it has received information the car parks there regularly causing access problems. The Council also established Ms X has been late placing her bins and boxes out for collection. So, on those occasions it will not collect until the next scheduled collection day. I do not consider I can add anything to the investigation carried out by the Council into the reasons for any missed assisted collections at Ms X’s property.
36. The Council has apologised to Ms X for any missed assisted collections which I consider is suitable action for it to take and remedies any injustice caused to Ms X. Some of the missed collections were caused by matters outside of the Council’s control. So, I do not consider Ms X has been caused such a significant injustice to warrant my pursuing the matter further or to suggest any further remedy.
37. The Council has now changed its contractor and invested to improve its waste collection service. This should reduce the number of missed assisted collections. The Council has also arranged for Ms X’s property to monitored to ensure the assisted collections are made. I do not consider I can achieve anything further for Ms X.

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Final decision

38. I am completing my investigation. I have fault in the way the Council carried out assisted collections at Ms X’s property. The Council’s apology is sufficient action for it to take in this case.

Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

39. I have not investigated Ms X’s complaints about missed collections during 2016, 2017 and 2018. This is because the Council’s documents show it considered formal complaints from Ms X during that time and offered her compensation which she accepted.
40. As paragraph five explains we expect someone to complain to us within 12 months of being aware of a problem unless we decide there are good reasons to investigate. I do not consider there are grounds in this case. This is because Ms X was aware she could complain to the Ombudsman in 2017. And so, could have done sooner than she did if she remained unhappy with the Council’s response to her concerns and the issues with the assisted collection service unresolved.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman