Summary: Mr X complained that he paid £60 for the Council’s bulky collection service and it failed to collect his items. Mr X said this resulted in him losing money. The Council was not at fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained he paid the Council £60 to collect ten items under its bulky item collection service and it failed to do so.
2. Mr X said this resulted in him losing money.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. 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

5. I spoke to Mr X and considered the information he provided about his complaint.
6. I considered the information the Council provided in response to my enquiries
7. I gave the Council and Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and took these comments into consideration before making my final decision.

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What I found

Council’s bulky collection service

8. The Council operates a domestic collection service for items which are too large to go into the normal waste bins. A person can request up to ten items for collection for a total cost of £57.75.
9. The Council has an online form the person should complete. It states “Items for collection must be at the front of the property and accessible on the scheduled day of collection”.

What happened

10. Mr X lives on the second floor of a block of flats. Access is via a communal door into the building.
11. Earlier in the year Mr X submitted an online form through the Council’s website requesting a bulky item collection for 10 items. Mr X booked a date and time slot for the collection. He also provided his email address and a telephone number. Mr X paid the collection fee.
12. Mr X says he placed some of the items on the ground floor outside the block of flats by the communal bins and others outside his door which was on the second floor.
13. The Council did not collect any of the items and so Mr X complained. He said the Council’s collection crew should have called him if it could not find the items for collection.
14. The Council responded and said that because the collection was attempted and there were instructions on its website about where to leave the items, it would not refund his money. The Council said it did not telephone people ahead of collecting the items.
15. Mr X complained again. In its response, the Council said the bulk item collection service had reported that the items were too dangerous to bring down three flights of stairs and they would have to be left outside the building in order to be collected.
16. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman.

My findings

17. The Council’s online form states items should be left at the front of the property. Mr X placed some of his items outside the door of his second floor flat. This was not in line with the Council’s requirements that they must be left outside the property. There was also no requirement for the collection crew to contact Mr X when it encountered issues with locating the items and the form did not create an expectation that this would occur. There was no fault in the Council’s actions.
18. The evidence shows the collection crew had Mr X’s address listed on its schedule for that date. The crew did not record seeing any items left outside the flats. Mr X said he left some of the items on the ground floor outside the flat and the collection crew did not collect them. I cannot say, even on balance, what happened. I will not investigate this matter further.

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Final decision

19. The Council was not at fault. Therefore, I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman