Summary: Mrs X complains that despite being registered for assisted collections, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day. Based on the documentation available I am minded to find the Council’s repeated failure to make assisted recycling collections over 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 that although she should receive assisted collections, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day.

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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 documents provided by Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; and
• sent a statement setting out my draft decision to Mrs X and the Council and invited their comments.

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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. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
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 that although she should receive assisted collections, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections are missed for over a year. Mrs X states the Council has also missed household waste and garden waste collections, but her recycling is worst affected. She states the Council missed between 18 and 20 recycling collections over the last 12 months. Mrs X is frustrated the Council routinely collects her neighbours’ recycling but misses hers.
10. According to the Council’s records, Mrs X reported 12 missed recycling collections between March 2019 and March 2020. The reports are all closed and indicate the Council made the missed collections on the next scheduled collection day. However, there are inconsistencies in the Council’s records.
11. The records show Mrs X reported a missed collection on 14 January 2020, which the Council closed on 28 January 2020. But Mrs X reported the collection scheduled for 28 January 2020 as missed, and the Council closed this report on 11 February 2020. This was the next scheduled collection date, and Mrs X again reported the collection as missed. The Council closed this report on 25 February 2020, the same day Mrs X reported another missed collection. Had the Council made all the collections as its records suggest, Mrs X would not have needed to report further missed collections.
12. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mrs X also made a formal complaint to the Council. Although the Council has provided records showing Mrs X first reported a missed collection in October 2019, she complained to the Council in August 2019. She stated she had been reporting missed recycling collections fortnightly since April 2019, but the Council had not collected her recycling. Mrs X asked the Council to remove the accumulated waste and to collect her recycling as scheduled.
13. The Council’s response apologised for the poor service. It had passed Mrs X’s complaint to the service manager who had reminded the crew of Mrs X’s collection. The Council 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.
14. Mrs X subsequently confirmed the Council had collected her recycling for the first time since April 2019. She asked whether the Council would offer a rebate on her council tax given the trouble she had experienced. The Council did not respond. In late October 2019 Mrs X asked for a review of her complaint as the Council was still not routinely collecting her recycling. The Council confirmed it had passed the matter to the service manager who would ensure she received assisted recycling collections as scheduled. It also confirmed the Council did not provide council tax rebates for missed collections.
15. As this did not resolve the problem, Mrs X asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Mrs X has assisted collection status.
16. The Council has not offered an explanation for the missed collections but has arranged to monitor Mrs X’s recycling collections for three months. It states the Service Manager has also undertaken to speak to the recycling crew concerned. This in conjunction with the monitoring should enable it to clearly identify root causes and provide a resolution.
17. Mrs X states there has been the odd missed collection during the monitoring period.

Analysis

18. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mrs X’s recycling. These failings in the service amounts to fault.
19. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. Its records of Mrs X’s reported missed collections, when it subsequently made the collections, and closed the reports are incomplete and inconsistent. Given the anomalies 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.
20. The Council states Mrs X has reported a total of twelve missed collections between March 2019 and March 2020, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. Aside from the inconsistencies in the dates the reports were closed, the Council’s records do not include any reports of missed collections prior to October 2019. Yet Mrs X complained about the poor service in August 2019 and stated she had reported missed collections almost every fortnight since April 2019. The Council’s response does not dispute Mrs X’s assertion or suggest that it had collected her recycling.
21. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaint. Rather than respond to Mrs X’s specific concerns the Council sent her standardised responses. They did not explain why Miss X’s bins were routinely missed when the rest of the street are collected or offer a resolution to the problem.
22. The Council has confirmed Mrs X is registered for assisted collections. It is therefore unclear why, if details of assisted collections appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and are added to the crew packs, it routinely failed to collect Mrs X’s recycling.
23. 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

24. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £300 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted recycling collections has caused.
25. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

26. The Council’s repeated failure to make assisted recycling collections over a sustained period amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman