Summary: Mrs X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner when collections are missed. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling as scheduled amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I will refer to as Mrs X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner when collections are missed.
2. Mrs X also complains that despite reporting missed collections and making a formal complaint the service has not improved.

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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
• 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

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 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

9. Mrs X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner when collections are missed. When there is a collection Mrs X states the collection crew will sometimes take only part of the recycling. They will take the bottles but leave the paper. Mrs X is trying to sell her property and the accumulation of recycling waste looks unsightly.
10. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported eight missed recycling collections between March 2019 and January 2020. 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 missed collection on 2 and 30 April 2019 which the Council closed on 7 and 30 May 2019, respectively. The dates the Council closed the reports suggests it also missed collections on 16 April, and 14 and 28 May 2019. It is also curious why, if the Council made a collection on 7 May 2019, it did not close both reports that day.
12. There are other discrepancies in the Council’s records. Mrs X also reported a missed collection on 11 June 2019 which the Council closed eight weeks later on 6 August 2019. This again suggests the Council missed the intervening scheduled collections. If it had made them, it could have closed the report much sooner. It is also of note that Mrs X reported the collection scheduled for 6 August 2019 as missed. This would not have been necessary if the Council had made the collection as its records suggest.
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. Mrs X also made a formal complaint about the recycling service. In August 2019 she complained that the collection crew had driven onto her street, but not collected the recycling. The crew had visited again that morning, and had taken the bottles, but not paper recycling. The Council confirmed it had passed Mrs X’s complaint to the service manager who had spoken to the crew and instructed them to collect all waste from Mrs X’s street.
15. As this did not resolve the problem and there were further missed collections, Mrs X asked the Council to review her complaint. She stated the Council had not collected her recycling for eight weeks and asked the Council to resolve the problem. The Council reviewed Mrs X’s complaint and apologised for the shortcomings in the service. It explained it was experiencing operational difficulties which were impacting on the recycling collections in her area. The Council was looking at ways to deal with these issues and had acquired new vehicles. It had put steps in place to clear the outstanding collections and advised that future collections should be made as scheduled.
16. Mrs X remained unhappy with the service and asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. She was unhappy that despite reporting missed collections and making a formal complaint the service had not improved. Mrs X complained the Council still missed or made only partial recycling collections, often weeks or months apart. She states the collection crews had always walked down the shared drive to collect her own and her neighbours’ bins. The household waste crew still so this, but in March 2020 the recycling crew put notes on the bins saying that they should now be presented at the end of the drive.
17. In response to my enquiries the Council states it expects Mrs X to present her bins at the edge of her property as is standard for all residents who do not receive assisted collections. It does not specify where this point is and has not confirmed whether the collection point has changed.
18. The Council states the depot had resourcing issues which affected scheduled recycling collections. To address this problem in late 2019 the Council created an additional recycling round. It states this appears to have stabilised recycling collections.
19. The Council arranged to monitor Mrs X’s recycling waste collections for three months.
20. In relation to Mrs X's concerns about the response to her complaints the Council states it uses template responses to ensure consistency of approach and content. The templates are intended to address the current situation and are regularly reviewed and updated. The Council acknowledges its initial response to Mrs X’s complaint was poor and did not use the templates. It notes however that the review response offered apologies and confirmed the action to be taken.
21. The Council states it has issued guidance to the depots on managing complaints and responses. These notes are designed to improve the quality of its responses.

Analysis

22. 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.
23. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported eight missed collections over a ten-month period, but I consider it likely the Council missed many more collections. Given the inconsistencies in the Council’s records, I do not consider them to be a reliable indicator of the extent of the missed collections.
24. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaints. Despite the Council’s assurances that regular collections would be made, the service did not improve, and the missed collections continued.
25. The Council has now introduced an additional round and Mrs X has confirmed there have been more regular collections. This change and the Council’s monitoring of collections should ensure Mrs X continues to receive an improved service.
26. 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 for weeks or even months at a time. 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.

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Agreed action

27. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £150 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling 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 recycling as scheduled amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman