Birmingham City Council (19 011 892)

Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 17 Jun 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling on the scheduled days or in a timely manner when collections are missed. He complains that this has led to an unpleasant accumulation of waste. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling on the scheduled days or in a timely manner when collections are missed. He complains that this has led to an accumulation of waste which he has had to take to the recycling centre to dispose of.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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)
  2. 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

  1. As part of the investigation, I have:
    • considered the complaint and the information provided by Mr X;
    • made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
    • discussed the issues with Mr X;
    • Mr 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

Refuse and recycling collections

  1. 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.
  2. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
  3. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.

What happened here

  1. Mr X complains the Council repeatedly has failed to collect his household waste and recycling on the scheduled days or in a timely manner when collections are missed. He states the recycling collections were the worst affected, but the Council’s failure to collect both the household waste and recycling regularly led to an accumulation of waste, which he has had to take to the recycling centre to dispose of.
  2. The Council’s records show Mr X reported seven missed household waste collections and four missed recycling collections over a 12-month period. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner. The records also suggest the Council missed other collections.
  3. For example, Mr X reported a missed household waste collection on 26 March 2019, which the Council closed on 24 April 2019. This would suggest it also missed the collections scheduled for 2, 9 and 16 April 2019. Had the Council made these collections, it could have closed the report much sooner. The records also show that Mr X reported a missed collection on 24 April 2019, which the Council closed four weeks later on 20 May 2019. If the Council had collected Mr X’s household waste on 24 April 2019 as its records suggest, there would have been no need for Mr X to report a further missed collection that day.
  4. There are similar inconsistencies in relation to the reports of missed recycling collections. Mr X reported a missed recycling collection on 1 August 2019 and the Council closed this report on 17 September 2019. As there should be fortnightly recycling collections, this suggests the Council also missed the three intervening scheduled collections. Again, if the Council had made these collections, it could have closed the reports sooner.
  5. 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.
  6. Mr X also made a formal complaint about the collection service. In September 2019 Mr X complained that the Council never emptied his bins on the scheduled days. He asked the Council to compensate him for its failure to collect his recycling. The Council apologised for the reduced level of service. It advised it had stabilised the service over the last few months but there were still a number of ongoing operational issues it was working to resolve. If the Council had not collected Mr X’s waste within two days of a missed collection, it asked Mr X to take the waste back on to his property. The Council would collect it on the next scheduled collection day.
  7. Mr X was not happy with the Council’s response and reiterated his request for refund of Council Tax in respect of the missed recycling collections. Mr X also disputed that the waste would be collected within two days or on the next scheduled collection. He stated the Council had never made the missed collections within two days.
  8. The Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint and apologised for the poor service standards. It confirmed it had passed the matter to the depot service manager. The Council explained it had experienced high levels of operational issues with both vehicles and staff, which had contributed to missed collections. It had plans in place to deal with these problems and had ordered additional collection vehicles. The Council stated the number of missed collections had reduced significantly. It also confirmed it would not refund Mr X’s Council Tax.
  9. As Mr X remained dissatisfied, he asked the ombudsman to investigate his complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states it will monitor Mr X’s household waste and recycling collections for three months. This should identify any root causes and resolve the problems with his collections.

Analysis

  1. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling. These failings in the service amount to fault.
  2. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. It states Mr X has reported a total of eleven missed collections, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. The reports show Mr X reported more missed household waste collections than recycling collections, but Mr X states the recycling service was the worst affected. This would suggest there were other missed recycling collections which are not shown in the Council’s records. As set out above, there are also inconsistencies in the Council’s records, which support the view that it missed more collections. I do not consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections, or when it actually collected the recycling.
  3. The Council has arranged to monitor Mr X’s collections, which should lead to an improvement in service.
  4. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the waste and uncollected recycling left at his property, including taking it to the recycling centre. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

  1. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections has caused.
  2. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

  1. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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