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. There is no evidence of fault in the waste collection service the Council provided to Mr X.

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. This leads to a build-up of waste on the street which looks untidy.
2. He also complains that despite reporting missed collections and making a formal complaint the service did not improve.

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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:
6. considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
7. made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
8. discussed the issues with Mr X; and
9. 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

10. 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.
11. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
12. 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

13. Mr X states the Council’s waste collection service has been poor for several years. He complains that over a period of two months in late 2019 the Council failed to collect his household waste and recycling on the scheduled day three times.
14. The Council’s records show that Mr X reported missed two collections between March 2019 and March 2020. Both reports were in November 2019 and both are closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections.
15. Mr X also asked his local councillor for assistance in having the missed waste collected. He then made a formal complaint to the Council in November 2019 about the waste collection service. He complained his recycling had not been collected the previous week. This was the second missed collection in two months. Mr X was unhappy the Council had not collected the missed recycling when it said it would and that it had not explained why it had missed the scheduled collection. He asked the Council to ensure it made the scheduled collections and to provide proper reasons when they were missed.
16. In its response the Council apologised for the reduced level of service. It explained there were a number of operational difficulties which it was working hard to resolve. The Council had passed his complaint to the depot service manager so that they were aware of the need to prioritise Mr X’s collections.
17. Mr X was not satisfied by the Council’s response as it did not say how or when the service would improve. The Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint and again apologised for the poor service. It stated the Council was experiencing high levels of operational issues with both vehicles and staff which had contributed to the missed collections. The Council explained it had plans in place to deal with these problems and had ordered additional vehicles. This had reduced the number of missed collections.
18. As the Council missed Mr X’s next scheduled collection, he asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states Mr X only reported two missed collections in a twelve- month period. It asserts there is insufficient evidence to suggest a repeated failure to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling.
19. In relation to Mr X's concerns about the response to his 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 Mr 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.
21. Mr X has confirmed his household waste and recycling collections service had improved in early 2020.

Analysis

22. Mr X is unhappy with the waste collection service and states it has been poor for years. However, the information currently available shows Mr X only reported two missed collections in 2019. It would clearly be preferable if the Council made all the scheduled collections on time, but I do not consider such a small number of missed collections is sufficient to amount to fault.

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Final decision

23. There is no evidence of fault in the waste collection service the Council provided to Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman