Summary: Mrs X complains that although she should receive assisted collections, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling since July 2019. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling 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 the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling since July 2019. Mrs X should receive assisted collections, but states the Council repeatedly misses her recycling while collecting her neighbours’. This has led to a build up of waste which Mrs X is unable to dispose of.
2. Mrs X’s daughter Mrs Y is assisting Mrs X in making this complaint.

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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 Y;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mrs Y;
• Mrs X, Mrs Y 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. 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.
9. 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

10. Mrs X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her recycling for the last 12 months. She states the Council has only collected her recycling three times since July 2019. Mrs X receives assisted collections and the Council routinely collects her household and garden waste without a problem. She is frustrated the Council collects her neighbours’ recycling as scheduled but consistently misses hers. Mrs X is also frustrated and disappointed that despite numerous complaints and assurances from the Council that it would make the collections, the service has not improved.
11. According to the Council’s records Mrs X has reported ten missed recycling collections over the last 12 months. 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. It is questionable whether the Council made these collections at all.
12. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported consecutive missed collections from late August to early November 2019 which the Council closed on various dates in November and December 2019. The dates the reports are closed are curious, as they do not follow a chronological order. For example, Mrs X reported missed collections on 12 and 26 September 2019, which the Council closed on 3 December and 11 November 2019 respectively. It is unclear why the Council closed the later report first, and why it did not close both reports on 11 November 2019.
13. There are similar inconsistencies in the dates the Council closed the next three reports. The Council closed the first report on 4 December, the second on 6 November, and the third on 6 December 2019. If the Council had made collections in November 2019 as its records suggest, it could have closed all reports that day and Mrs X would not have needed to report a missed collection on 7 November 2019.
14. 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.
15. Mrs Y maintains the Council has only collected Mrs X’s recycling three times during the last 12 months.
16. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mrs X also made a formal complaint about the service. In late September 2019, Mrs X complained the Council had not collected her recycling for the last eight weeks. She had telephoned to report the missed collections numerous times, but the recycling had still not been collected. Mrs X complained the Council had collected her neighbours’ bins but had left hers.
17. The Council’s response apologised for any inconvenience caused. It explained the Council had faced challenging circumstances which had resulted in missed collections. Although it had stabilised the service, there were still ongoing operational difficulties it was working to resolve. The Council confirmed it would remind crews of Mrs X’s assisted collections.
18. This did not resolve the problem, so Mrs Y asked the Council to look into the matter again. The Council confirmed it had referred the issue to the Service Manager so they could ensure Mrs X’s assisted collections were carried out as scheduled. The Council explained the depot had experienced high levels of operational issues with both vehicles and staff which had impacted on assisted collections. It had put plans in place to deal with these problems.
19. As the service did not improve, and Mrs X experienced further missed recycling collections, Mrs Y has 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.
20. The Council states that during the course of this investigation it identified that the recycling work was split between two rounds and that due to a lack of communication each crew thought it was the other one’s responsibility. It states a Depot Manager has now clarified the matter and there should be no further issues, going forward. The Manager will also remind the designated crew that Mrs X’s property is registered for an assisted collection.
21. In addition, the Council will monitor Mrs X’s recycling collections for the next three months to ensure the assisted collections run smoothly from now on.

Analysis

22. It is clear from the Council’s records there have been failings in the assisted collection service. It is unclear why, if details of assisted collections appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and are added to the crew packs, Mrs X’s is missed when the rest of the street is collected. The repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling amounts to fault.
23. The Council states Mr X has reported a total of ten missed collections, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are discrepancies in the Council’s records, and Mrs Y states there have only been three collections in the last 12 months. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections, or when it actually collected the recycling.
24. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council responded to Mrs X and Mrs Y’s complaints. Despite the Council’s assurances it had reminded the crew members and regular collections would be made, the service did not improve, and the missed collections continued.
25. It is disappointing that the Council did not identify the recycling collections were split between two crew as part of its investigation of Mrs X’s complaint in September/ October 2019. The lack of communication between the crews does not explain why Mrs X’s recycling was missed when her neighbours’ was collected. But identifying the confusion between the crews earlier may have led to an improvement in service for all residents, including Mrs X.
26. I recognise the Council is now monitoring Mrs X’s collections which should also lead to an improvement.
27. 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 a year. Mrs X is unable to move the bin or dispose of the accumulated recycling 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

28. 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 household waste and recycling collections has caused.
29. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

30. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s recycling 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