Summary: Ms X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled days. She also complains the Council took too long to deal with reports of missed collections. Ms X says this caused unnecessary frustration and inconvenience to her. The Ombudsman has found fault by the Council and has upheld the complaint. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled days. She also complains the Council’s processes in dealing with reports of missed collections do not rectify the issue in a timely manner.
2. Ms X says the Council takes too long to deal with reports of missed collections, by which time the next scheduled collection is due. She says this has caused unnecessary frustration, and time and trouble in taking her rubbish to the recycling centre.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated Ms X’s complaint dating back to September 2018. The final section of this statement contains my reasons for not investigating the complaint prior to this period.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)
6. 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

7. I have discussed the complaint with Ms X and considered the information she provided.
8. I have made enquiries to the Council and considered the information it provided.
9. Ms X and the Council have had the opportunity to provide their comments on a draft of this decision. I have taken these comments into account when making my 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 the councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
11. The Council’s waste collection policy says collections of household and recyclable rubbish are made every two weeks.
12. Residents are required to put their bins out for collection by 7am at the kerbside where they can be clearly seen. Bins will not be collected if rubbish is compacted, if bin lids cannot close, or bins are too heavy to safely be collected.
13. The Council says if bins are not collected, residents should receive a bin tag informing them of the reason why. If there is no bin tag, residents can report a missed collection online or over the telephone.

What happened

14. Ms X lives in a property set back from the road and is required to take her bins to a designated area so they can be collected.
15. Ms X says the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her rubbish dating back several years. Ms X reported several missed bin collections but says she did not report each one because she did not always receive a response from the Council.
16. In September 2019, Ms X complained to the Council about the missed collections. She said sometimes it was only her bin which was not collected and on other occasions, her neighbours’ bins were also missed.
17. The Council said when a missed collection is reported, the report is submitted to its Waste Services team who, subject to availability, endeavour to return to collect the rubbish.
18. Ms X responded to say missed collections were not resolved because the Council took up to 14 days to follow up on a complaint. Ms X said by this time, the next scheduled collection was due, and any missed collections were then likely to form part of the next scheduled visit.
19. The Council’s stage one response said it had spoken to the senior crew member for the team that collects her rubbish. It said this was to ensure that regular collections took place. The Council said a more regular and consistent service should follow.
20. Ms X was unhappy with the stage one response. She requested an improvement in the time taken from reporting missed collections to the Council resolving the issue.
21. The Council’s stage two response said a daily report of missed collections is prepared and circulated to the Waste Operations team for action. The Council said it would review the reliability and robustness of the call back service, including the use of mobile technology in the crews’ vehicles.
22. Ms X remained unhappy with the Council’s response and brought her complaint to the Ombudsman to investigate.
23. Ms X says the installation of video cameras to the front and rear of the waste collection vehicles would ensure the waste contractors visit the streets identified in their route.

The Council’s response

24. The Council says it believes the issue is caused by the need for Ms X to take her bin to a boundary point for the collection to be made, due to the location of her property. The Council says its findings, having spoken to crew members, is that the bin was not being placed on the boundary point where collections should be presented.
25. The Council acknowledges the matter could have been resolved more quickly and without repeat incident if it had clarified where the collection point is, to allow for a successful collection.
26. The Council says that where reports of missed collections are received from the customer service contact centre, they are referred to the appropriate service electronically. But if these reports are not accompanied by instructions from a customer services manager, the Domestic Waste service is not made aware.
27. The Council says it is not the initial handler of these types of contact, but it is committed to improving the call back system.
28. The Council says it will be implementing new software which will handle a range of issues, including missed collections, and will highlight any repeat problems. It says it can also use new in-cab technology to ensure collections are being made.
29. The Council says that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was going to implement monitoring. It says the supervisor for the round could be tasked with monitoring services until a regular pattern of collections is demonstrated. It says such monitoring periods usually last for a period of 12 weeks.

Analysis

30. The Council’s records show there were four recorded occasions between September 2018 and February 2020 when Ms X reported missed collections.
31. Of these recorded reports, two are regarding Ms X’s own bins, and two are regarding missed collections for the whole street.
32. The Council says it is not the initial call handler for such cases. However, it retains responsibility for the provision of waste collection and for the service provided by a third-party organisation on its behalf. It should therefore employ appropriate processes to ensure reports of missed collections are adequately dealt with.
33. Although the Council said Ms X’s bins were not placed in the correct location, this does not explain the two occasions where it was reported that collections for the whole street were missed. In addition, Ms X says her bins were placed in the correct place at the correct time.
34. It is not for the Ombudsman to determine whether the bins were placed in the correct location or not. However, he can look at the actions taken by the Council once a missed collection is reported.
35. There are no records to show the missed collections were referred to the appropriate team to be dealt with. Also, there are no records of any action taken by the Council once the missed collections were reported. And there are no records of a resolution to these reports, or responses to Ms X after the reports were made.
36. I am therefore satisfied the Waste Team was not informed at the time, and the Council did not return to collect the missed collections. I am satisfied the Council’s failure to adequately deal with Ms X’s reports of missed collections, and its failure to escalate the matter to the correct team so that collection could be made, constitutes fault.
37. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Ms X a significant injustice. Ms X has stated that on occasions, she needed to take her rubbish to the recycling centre herself. She has also experienced frustration with the Council’s lack of response and failure to resolve the problem. Ms X has also been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve the matter.
38. I have considered Ms X’s comments regarding the installation of video cameras to the waste collection vehicles. However, I have not recommended the Council take this action as this would incur considerable costs. Alternative corrective action will ensure the waste is collected without placing this additional financial pressure on the Council.

Agreed action

39. To address the injustice arising from the fault identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action:

• Provide an apology to Ms X within four weeks of the final decision;
• Make a payment of £100 to Ms X within four weeks of the final decision. This is in recognition of the frustration caused to, and time and trouble taken by Ms X;
• Within four weeks of the final decision, to provide clarification in writing to Ms X about the location of the collection point;
• Monitor the waste collection service to Ms X for a period of 12 weeks to establish a regular pattern of collections, and;
• Ensure that any subsequent reports of missed collections are escalated to the Waste Team at the time they are reported, so a re-collection can be arranged.

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Final decision

40. I have upheld the complaint and completed the investigation.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

41. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
42. Ms X complained to the Council in September 2019. I have not investigated the complaint beyond 12 months prior to this date because Ms X could have brought her complaint to the Ombudsman earlier.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman