North Yorkshire County Council (19 009 994)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 06 Nov 2019
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about being charged to dispose of waste at a recycling centre as it is unlikely we will find fault by the Council.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about being charged to dispose of waste at a Council recycling centre.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 it is unlikely we would find fault (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint.
What I found
- Mr X complains he was charged to dispose of his household waste at a Council recycling centre.
- The Council explains that residents driving commercial-like vehicles must be registered to dispose of household waste free of charge at its sites. A charge can be made for users who arrive in commercial-like vehicles which are not registered.
- Mr X drives a pick-up type vehicle which must be registered in this way. Mr X says he needed to empty his car and so paid the fee. Mr X now feels some discretion could have been exercised and wants the Council to refund the payment he made.
Analysis
- The Council under its policy was entitled to charge Mr X to dispose of his waste. Additionally, while Mr X said he needed to empty his vehicle, ultimately, it was his own choice to pay the fee rather than taking the waste away. It seems unlikely the Council acted with fault therefore or that the alleged fault directly caused Mr X an injustice. For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we will find fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman