Summary: Mrs X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day for about a year as her property was not included on a collection route. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling on the scheduled day for a sustained period 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 repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day for about a year as her property was not included on a collection route.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the information provided Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• Mrs 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

5. 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.
6. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
7. In September 2018 the Council introduced a new operating model. Under this model, scheduled collection days remained the same, but the collection rounds/routes changed.
8. 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 I found

9. Mrs X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from her street despite routinely collecting it from neighbouring streets. She states that for over a year they had only sporadic collections.
10. The Council’s records show Mrs X has reported 18 missed recycling collections between November 2018 and January 2020. Several of Mrs X’s neighbours also reported missed recycling collections over the same 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 also missed other collections.
11. For example, Mrs X reported a missed collection on 15 May 2019 and the Council closed the report seven weeks later on 2 July 2019. This suggests the Council also missed collections scheduled for 28 May, and 11 and 25 June 2019. If the Council had made these collections, it could have closed the reports much sooner.
12. Similarly, Mrs X reported a missed collection on 13 August 2019 which the Council closed on 1 October 2019. This again suggests the Council also missed several intervening scheduled collections. It is also curious that Mrs X reported a further missed collection on 1 October 2019. If the Council had collected Mrs X’s recycling on 1 October 2019, as its records suggest, she would not have needed to report a missed collection that day. The Council did not close Mrs X’s report of 1 October 2019 until 19 November 2019, seven weeks later.
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. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mrs X also made a formal complaint. In August 2019 Mrs X complained there had been problems with her recycling collections for over a year. She stated the Council was only collecting her recycling every six or eight weeks, rather than fortnightly. Mrs X asked the Council to investigate the matter. In its response, the Council apologised for the reduced level of service and confirmed it had passed the matter to the depot service manager. It explained it had stabilised the service over the last few month, but there were still a number of ongoing operational difficulties it was working to resolve.
15. As this did not resolve the problem and there were further missed collections, Mrs X asked for her complaint to be considered further. Mrs X said she had spoken to the crew who said her street was not on the collection route. The collection crew said they would raise this with the depot, but the Council still did not collect the recycling. The Council confirmed it would move Mrs X’s street to a different round, with a different vehicle.
16. Mrs X asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states Mrs X’s street is quite narrow, but the longstanding crew were aware of this and collected the household waste and recycling. However, when the Council introduced a new operating model in September 2018 it reorganised the crews. This caused disruption as the new crews familiarised themselves with the location. The Council states the narrowness of the road was a challenge for the new crew. In investigating Mrs X’s complaint, the Council states it identified it should move the recycling collections to a round using a narrower vehicle.
17. The Council states it made these route changes in October 2019 and this has stabilised the recycling collections. The Council arranged to monitor Mrs X’s recycling collections for three months.
18. Mrs X confirmed in December 2019 that the service had improved, and she had started to receive regular recycling collections.

Analysis

19. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mrs X’s recycling. These failings in the service amount to fault.
20. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. It states Mrs X has reported a total of 18 missed collections, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Mrs X’s complaints refer to consecutive missed collections and waiting six to eight weeks between 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.
21. The Council has changed the route in response to Mrs X’s complaint and this has led to an improvement in service, which is to be welcomed. But I consider the Council could have taken this action sooner. The Council was, or should have been, aware of the crew’s difficulties in collecting the recycling since it changed the routes in September 2018. Aside from Mrs X and her neighbours reporting missed collections, I would have expected the collections crews to have reported any recurring difficulties in collecting the recycling. This should have prompted the Council to identify and resolve the issue sooner.
22. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mrs X an injustice. Mrs X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling 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

23. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular waste collections has caused.
24. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

25. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling on the scheduled day for over a year amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman