Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about missed recycling and refuse collections. This is because the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant who I shall call Mr X, is unhappy about the number of missed refuse and recycling collections during the period from July 2019 to December 2019.

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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’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if we believe:

• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr X provided in support of his complaint, including his correspondence with the Council and its responses. I considered comments Mr X made in response to the draft decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. Mr X’s problems with the recycling and refuse collections started in July 2019 after the Council reorganised this service.
5. By October 2019 a number of collections had been missed, and others collected the next day after being reported as missed. Mr X contacted the Council in October to complain about this. He told the Council that since July, there had been four missed recycling collections and one missed refuse collection.
6. The Council replied on 25 October apologising for the issues which it said were due to teething problems following the changes with the collection crew.
7. Further recycling collections were missed in November. Mr X complained again. The Council replied on 26 November. It apologised and explained there had been problems due to crews not having time to complete the round, driver shortages and temporary drivers. The driver now understood the location of his property and it hoped this would resolve the issue.
8. Mr X was not happy with the Council’s response and referred the complaint to us in December. He told us his recycling had not been collected since October. He explained that when a collection was missed, he had to take it 300 yards by wheelbarrow to the house. And he has also had to take recycling to bins in Harrogate. He wanted the Council to provide a proper service, monitor this by checking with him and compensate him for the lack of service.
9. Mr X has said that since complaining to us, all refuse and recycling collections had been made on time and the Council had telephoned him twice to check the position. He feels the Council should be required to pay him nominal compensation for the lack of service otherwise he will have no redress for the hassle and wasted time this caused him.

Assessment

10. The Council has accepted it has been at fault. The information Mr X has provided shows the service has been unreliable and a number of collections were missed from July to December. I appreciate this has been frustrating and inconvenient for Mr X. But we can only require a Council to pay compensation if we carry out an investigation and I do not think the injustice caused is significant enough to justify our further involvement. And it appears from Mr X’s update that the Council has taken action to remedy the faults with the service.

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Final decision

11. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman