Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (19 016 788)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate the complainant’s concerns about the Council’s garden waste collection service. He cannot investigate complaints about something affecting all or most of the residents of the Council’s area. The Ombudsman is unlikely to find other fault by the Council has caused the complainant injustice that justifies his involvement.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr B, has raised various issues about how the Council organises its garden waste collection service.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
- 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, for example, we believe:
- it is unlikely we would find fault;
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered what Mr B said in his complaint and background information provided by the Council. Mr B commented on a draft before I made this decision.
What I found
- The Council provides a discretionary garden waste collection service for which it currently charges £43 a year.
- Mr B has raised several issues with the Council about the service including the size of bins, the annual cost and payment methods. In summary, he believes the Council could run the service more efficiently.
Final decision
- I have decided we will not investigate this complaint. This is because, by law, we cannot look at issues such as a council providing ‘value for money’ which affect all or most of the residents of the area. I have seen nothing to suggest other fault by the Council has caused Mr B some significant personal injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman