Summary: Mrs X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from her street for most of 2019. This led to an accumulation of waste on the street and residents had to take their recycling to the recycling centre. 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 shall refer to as Mrs X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from her street for most of 2019. This led to an accumulation of waste on the street and the residents had to take their recycling to the recycling centre if the wanted to recycle.

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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 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

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. 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

8. Mrs X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from her street. She states the Council did not make any scheduled collections for about nine months and during this time made only one catch up collection. This led to an accumulation of waste on the street and meant if the residents wanted to recycle their waste, they had to take it to the recycling centre.
9. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported seven missed recycling collections in 2019 and her neighbours reported a further six missed recycling collections. 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.
10. For example, Mrs X reported a missed collection on 8 March 2019 which the Council closed on 11 April 2019. This suggests the Council also missed collections scheduled for 22 March and 5 April 2019. Mrs X’s neighbour reported a missed collection on 22 March 2019 and Mrs X reported a missed collection on 5 April 2019. The Council closed these two reports on 7 May 2019. This again suggests the Council missed further scheduled collections. If the Council had made them, it could have closed the reports sooner. It is also curious that the Council did not close these reports on 11 April 2019, when its records suggest it made a collection.
11. Mrs X’s neighbours reported two missed collections in May 2019 and Mrs X then reported the following five scheduled collections as missed collections.
12. 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.
13. In addition to reporting missed collection, Mrs X also contacted her local councillor. She states this led to a one-off collection on 7 August 2019, but the Council then missed the next scheduled collection. Mrs X made a formal complaint to the Council on 23 August 2019. She complained that her road had been missed off the recycling collection route since Easter. Mrs X stated she had reported missed collections online and had waited on hold for 45 minutes to report them by telephone, but they had only had one collection arranged by their councillor. Mrs X asked the Council to collect the accumulated waste and to ensure they received regular fortnightly collections. She also asked it to investigate why her street was no longer on a collection route and to explain why the reporting system was ineffective.
14. The Council’s response apologised for the reduced level of service. It stated the Council had been faced with challenging circumstances since January 2019 which had resulted in missed collections. There were still a number of ongoing operational difficulties it was working hard to resolve.
15. Mrs X was not satisfied with the Council’s response as it had still not collected her recycling and she had no faith the service would improve. She believed the Council may have dropped her street from the route and wanted the Council to look into the matter. The Council reviewed her complaint and explained the depot had experienced operational difficulties which had adversely impacted on collections from her street. The Council had spoken to the service manager who would ensure the collection scheduled for the following day would take place. It also confirmed it would carry out spot checks over the next few weeks.
16. As the Council did not collect Mrs X’s recycling, she contacted the Council again to ask for an explanation. The Council advised Mrs X she had completed the complaints process. Mrs X was unhappy the Council had closed her complaint without providing a resolution and asked the Ombudsman to investigate.
17. In response to my enquiries 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.
18. The Council arranged to monitor Mrs X’s recycling waste collections for three months.
19. 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 states its responses to Mrs X’s complaints used the templates in place at the time. It notes the review response offered apologies and confirmed the action to be taken.
20. 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

21. 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.
22. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. The Council states Mrs X reported a total of seven missed collections, but I consider it likely the Council missed many more collections. The inconsistencies in the Council’s records suggest it did not make any recycling collections from Mrs X or her neighbours between March and August 2019, and then only made sporadic collections until the end of the year.
23. I do not consider the Council’s records 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. There is no evidence the Council carried out the spot checks referred to in its review response, but if it did, this does not appear to have been effective in resolving the problem.
25. The Council has now introduced an additional round and Mrs X has confirmed she now receives regular recycling 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 including making trips to the recycling centre to dispose of the accumulated waste herself. 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 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 basis 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