Summary: Mrs X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste on the scheduled day or within a reasonable timeframe when it misses collections. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s household waste in full amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste on the scheduled day or within a reasonable timeframe when it misses collections.
2. Mrs X also complains the Council’s responses to her complaints do not address her concerns and have not resolved the problem.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
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. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mrs X; and
• sent a statement setting out my draft decision to Mrs X and the Council and invited their comments.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

6. 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.
7. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
8. 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

9. Mrs X complains that although the Council agreed she could use, and has provided a wheelie bin, it has not arranged for her bin to be collected by the bin collection crew. Instead, when the sack collection crew collect her neighbours’ sacks, they are expected to empty her bin by hand. This restricts how she can use her bin as the crew will not collect any waste not in a black bag. It also means that her bins are not always emptied, and when they are, the crew often leave waste as they cannot reach the sack at the bottom of her bin or do not want to handle the waste.
10. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported eight missed household waste collections and three missed recycling collections in 2019. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates it closed these reports are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner. The records also suggest the Council also missed other collections.
11. Mrs X reported missed collections on 12 and 18 April 2019, and the Council closed these reports on 29 April and 5 May 2019 respectively. This is curious as if the Council had made a collection on 29 April 2019, or on another scheduled collection day, it could have closed both reports that day.
12. There are similar inconsistencies in the records for Mrs X’s reports of missed collections in August and September 2019. Mrs X reported missed collections on 15 and 22 August 2019 which the Council closed on 30 August and 6 September 2019. Again, this suggests the Council missed other collections and raises the question of why both reports were not closed on 30 August 2019. Mrs X reported a further missed collection on 13 September 2019 and the Council closed this report on 27 September 2019. However, Mrs X reported another missed collection on 27 September 2019. It would not have been necessary for Mrs X to report a further missed collection if the Council had collected her waste on 27 September 2019.
13. The Council states there may be a delay between when it goes out to collect a missed collection and when it closes the report, so it is not necessarily the case that it also missed the intervening collections. However, the Council has not provided evidence of the dates it made the missed collections where they are different to the date the report was closed.
14. As well as reporting missed collections, Mrs X also made a formal complaint about the poor service. In April 2019 Mrs X complained that her bin was not being emptied properly and that waste was being left at the bottom. She stated that until the summer of 2018 a bin collection crew collected her waste separately to her neighbours’. But a sack collection crew now collects her waste. They have to empty her bin by hand and only take what they can reach. Mrs X asserted this was not acceptable and as the Council has provided her with a bin, it should also provide the correct collection service.
15. In its response, the Council apologised for the poor service and the delay in responding to Mrs X’s complaint. It confirmed the service manager had spoken to the crew and reminded them of Mrs X’s collection. Mrs X was not satisfied by this response as the Council had again not emptied her bin. She asked the Council to review her complaint.
16. The Council was sorry the matter had not been resolved. It had alerted the service manager so that he could ensure Mrs X’s collections returned to schedule. The Council stated the fact Mrs X’s neighbours were on sack collections should have no bearing on her own collections.
17. Mrs X has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. She has also made a further complaint to the Council as collections are still being missed, or not all her waste is collected.
18. In response to my enquiries the Council has confirmed that Mrs X is on a bin collection round. It has not explained why collections were missed but will monitor Mrs X’s household and recycling collections for three months. The Council anticipates this will identify root causes and provide a resolution to the problem.
19. In terms of its responses to Mrs X’s complaints the Council states depot administrators use templates responses to ensure consistency of approach and content. It states the templates are intended to address the current situation and are regularly reviewed and updated. The Council acknowledges its original response to Mrs X's complaint was insufficient. But notes the review response did refer to Mrs X’s concerns about neighbouring properties being on sack collections.
20. The Council states it has now issued depots with guidance notes on managing complaints/responses and these notes are designed to improve the quality of responses.

Analysis

21. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mrs X’s waste at all, or in full over many months. These failings in the service amounts to fault.
22. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. Its records of Mrs X’s reported missed collections, when it subsequently made the collections, and then closed the reports are incomplete and inconsistent.
23. I do not consider them to be a reliable indicator of the extent of the problem. I consider it likely that there were many more missed collections than the Council’s records suggest.
24. I recognise the Council is now monitoring Mrs X’s bin collections and would expect this to lead to an improvement in service. But I consider the Council should have taken action to resolve this matter sooner.
25. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council responded to Mrs X’s complaints. The Council’s use of standard templates to respond to complaints may be an acceptable starting point, but it must also address the specific issues raised in each complaint. The Council’s responses to Mrs X’s complaints do not adequately address her concerns or resolve the problem. Despite assurances that managers had spoken to the crews and her bins would be emptied, the problems continued.
26. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mrs X an injustice. As the sack collection crew will only take waste in black bags, Mrs X is restricted in how she can use the bin and has been unable to use biodegradable bags. Mrs X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected household 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. Mrs X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

27. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular waste collections has caused.
28. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

29. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s household waste in full amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman