Summary: the Council failed to collect Ms B’s bin under its assisted collection scheme as agreed and delayed responding to her complaint. That caused Ms B to have to go to time and trouble to pursue her complaint. An apology and payment to Ms B is satisfactory remedy.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms B, complained the Council:
• repeatedly failed to collect her bins under the assisted collection scheme as agreed; and
• delayed responding to her complaints.
2. Those failures meant Ms B had to go to time and trouble to pursue her complaint.

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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 Ms B's comments;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided.
6. Ms B 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

Chronology of the main events

7. Ms B is disabled and receives an assisted bin collection service from the Council. Between March 2019 and July 2019 Ms B contacted the Council on seven occasions to say the Council had not collected her brown bin. On each occasion the Council sent out a mobile crew to collect the brown bin, usually the following day. On two occasions the mobile crew visited several days later. The Council has only received two further reports of a missed collection between August 2019 and July 2020.
8. Ms B put in a complaint on 7 July 2019 and chased the Council for a response on 13 August and 7 September. On 9 September the Council told Ms B its bin crew had said it had not collected the bin as it was not available for collection. Ms B told the Council that was inaccurate. Ms B asked for a response under the Council’s complaints procedure. Ms B chased the Council for a response on 17, 19 and 25 September.
9. On 23 October the Council’s operations manager contacted Ms B to tell her it had sorted out the missed assisted collections. The operations manager apologised for the poor service. The Council then sent Ms B a formal response at stage two of its complaints procedure on 31 October. The Council again apologised for the inconsistent collections and any communication issues. The Council offered to arrange a meeting if Ms B wanted to meet.
10. Ms B contacted the Council on 2 November to say she was not happy with the response to her complaint. The Council responded to that on 9 January 2020. The Council apologised for the delay responding which it said was because it had not identified her communication of 2 November as a request to move the complaint to stage three. The Council told Ms B it considered it had taken appropriate action to deal with the complaint.

Analysis

11. The evidence I have seen satisfies me the Council failed to collect Ms B’s brown bin on seven occasions between March 2019 and July 2019, with two further missed collections in September and December 2019. That is fault. I am, however, satisfied on each of those occasions the Council acted appropriately by arranging for a crew to collect the bin either the following day or within a few days. I am also satisfied the action the Council has taken appears to have resolved the issue given there were only two missed collections between August 2019 and July 2020 and none in 2020.
12. The Council’s complaints procedure says it will try to resolve problems at the first point of contact but if that is not possible it will log the issue as a complaint. That stage one complaint will be looked at by a service supervisor or manager of the service and where the complaint cannot be resolved informally the Council will log it and allocate it to an officer to deal with. The Council’s complaints procedure says the maximum time to respond to a stage one complaint is 10 working days.
13. In this case the evidence I have seen satisfies me Ms B put in a complaint on 7 July 2019. I am aware an officer spoke to Ms B about the complaint but there is nothing in the documentary records to show the Council followed that up with Ms B to provide an update or outcome. That is despite Ms B chasing a response in August 2019. That is fault. In those circumstances it is unsurprising Ms B was surprised to receive a stage two complaint response from the Council in October 2019 as she had no indication her complaint had completed stage one.
14. I am also concerned about the delay responding to the complaint at stage three. Ms B told the Council she was not happy with its stage two response on 2 November 2019. The Council did not respond to that until 9 January 2020. That delay is fault. Although the Council says it did not consider Ms B’s contact in November 2019 was clear she wanted to progress her complaint I am satisfied Ms B made clear in her letter she was not happy with the stage two response. I therefore consider the Council should have identified the need to move the complaint to stage three earlier. Delay doing that is fault.
15. So, I have found fault as the Council failed to collect Ms B’s brown bin on nine occasions between March 2019 and December 2019. I have also found fault as the Council delayed responding to the complaint both at stage one and stage three. Those failures meant Ms B had to go to time and trouble to pursue her complaint. I welcome the Council’s apology for the delays and failure to collect Ms B’s brown bin. However, given Ms B has gone to a lot of time and trouble to pursue the complaint and received no clear explanation as to why brown bin collections failed in 2019 I recommended the Council also pay her £100. The Council has agreed to my recommendation.

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Agreed action

16. Within one month of my decision the Council should:
• apologise to Ms B for the faults identified in this statement; and
• pay Ms B £100.

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Final decision

17. I have completed my investigation and uphold the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman