Summary: Miss X complains that the Council has repeatedly failed to provide the agreed assisted waste collection service for over a year. I find the Council’s failure to make regular waste collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice. The Council has agreed to a period of further monitoring and a financial payment.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that although she should receive assisted collections, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her garden waste on the schedule day. She also says that her bins are not being returned, causing inconvenience and distress.

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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’. 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)
3. 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

4. I considered the complaint and documents provided by Miss X. I made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents it provided in response.
5. I provided Miss X and the Council with a copy of my draft decision and invited their comments. I considered all the comments I received before reaching a final decision on this case.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

6. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1960 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area.
7. The Councils practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly garden waste collection. However, in response to COVID the Council made amendments to the service effective from 1 April 2020. This included a full suspension of the service for four weeks followed by a partial recommencement of the service at a fortnightly schedule.
8. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins due to a disability or ill health.
9. For assisted collections, when a resident reports a missed collection the crew should return to complete the round as soon as possible.

What happened

10. Miss X is disabled and lives on her own. She complains that although she should receive assisted collections the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her garden waste on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections are missed. Miss X states the Council has also missed household waste collections, but her garden waste is the worst affected. She is frustrated the Council routinely collects her neighbours garden waste but misses her. Miss X also says there have been several occasions where the bins have not been returned to her gate and left on the pavement and she has had to call a family member to move them. Miss X says these problems have been ongoing for 11 years. This investigation looks at events since August 2019, when Miss X complained to the Council.
11. According to the Council’s records Miss X has reported three missed garden waste collections since August 2019 and one report about crew not returning the bins to her property after collection. The Council says that Miss X’s address has been added to the system as an assisted collection and there have been no further reports of missed garden waste collections since May 2020. However, there are inconsistencies in the Council’s records.
12. Miss X has provided details of 15 missed collections since August 2019, reported online, by email or telephone. In addition to reporting the missed collections, Miss X also made a formal complaint to the Council on 15 August 2019. The complaint team responded six weeks later and told Miss X that she had not met the criteria for a formal complaint, which was three missed collections of the same bin type within the last two months. Miss X was advised that her concerns had been raised with the Waste Team.
13. Miss X made a further complaint on 5 October 2019 and provided dates of three missed collections; 15 August, 12 September, and 3 October 2019. Miss X said she wanted the Council to monitor the service and empty her bins weekly. The Council responded to Miss X’s letter under stage one of its complaint procedure. It apologised for the poor service. It had raised the issues with a supervisor who had reminded the crew of Miss X’s collection. The Council confirmed that it would monitor collections for the next few weeks. Miss X queried whether the Council would offer her a rebate on her council tax considering the problems she had experienced. The Council did not respond.
14. On 28 October 2019 Miss X wrote to the Council requesting her complaint to be escalated to stage two. She said her bins should be collected on a Thursday and she has to wait until Friday after 11:00 to report the missed collection but the crew do not return until the following Thursday.
15. A week later, a senior manager from the Waste Team contacted Miss X about her complaint. He apologised for the issues she continued to experience and said the collection would be monitored for four weeks.
16. In December 2019, Miss X wrote to the Council again. She said she had not received a formal response to her stage two complaint and that on 19 December her household waste bin was emptied and left outside her neighbours’ property again and another bin was left outside her driveway blocking her car. Miss X said that “in less than two months promises of an assisted collection had not been met”
17. The Council responded to Miss X on the 23 March 2020, at stage three of its complaint procedure. The Council said that Miss X’s assisted collection had been added to its system. It acknowledged that the last period of monitoring had been unsuccessful and agreed that it would continue to monitor the collections.
18. As this did not resolve the problem, Miss X asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an In-Cab terminal system which informs crews of properties that require assisted collections. It has confirmed that Miss X has assisted collection status. The Council acknowledged that Miss X had experienced a poor level of service but added that some of this was due to Miss X’s gardener putting the garden waste bin out for collection on the pavement, which caused confusion for the crews. It said that bins being presented out on the pavement suggested that Miss X no longer required an assisted collection.

Analysis

19. It is clear form the Council’s records and the information provided by Miss X that the Council had repeatedly failed to collect Miss X’s garden waste and return her bins to her property. These failings in service amounts to fault.
20. The Council accepts that it has missed collections and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. Its records of Miss X’s reported missed collection since August 2019 are incomplete and inconsistent. Given the anomalies I do not consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections or when it returned to collect the garden waste.
21. The Council states Miss X reported a total of three missed collections between August 2019 and October 2020. But Miss X has provided details of fifteen missed collections in twelve months. Whilst I cannot confirm the accuracy of these numbers, I consider it likely that the Council missed significantly more than three collections. The Council said Miss X had made no further reports since May 2020. I note that Miss X reported a missed collection on 25 May 2020 which resulted in a service manager asking the crew why the collection had been missed again. Miss X continues to experience problems with the bins not being returned to her property.
22. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council dealt with Miss X’s complaint. The Council failed to accept her first complaint in August 2019 and then delayed in responding to her further complaints.
23. The Council’s complaint responses do not dispute that there have been problems with Miss X’s assisted collections. It has apologised and reminded crews to collect and return Miss X’s bins. It is therefore not clear why the crews repeatedly missed collections and left the bins on the pavement rather than returning them to her property.
24. The Council confirmed Miss X was registered for assisted collections in October 2019, it is therefore unclear why in its stage three response the Council said the system had been updated in March 2020. It is also not clear why the first period of monitoring was unsuccessful and why the Council did not identify and rectify this sooner, causing Miss X to raise a stage two and stage three complaint.
25. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Miss X an injustice. Miss X had to rely on family members to move bins from the pavement back to her property. She had experienced frustration and disappointment both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Miss X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve the matter. Miss X says that she continues to experience problems with her collections.

Agreed action

26. The Council has agreed to my recommendations and within four weeks of my final decision it will:
1. apologise to Miss X and pay her £300 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted collections has caused;
2. implement a further four-week period of monitoring to ensure Miss X’s assisted collections are carried out properly and her bins are collected and returned to her property.

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Final decision

27. I have found the Council at fault for repeatedly failing to make assisted waste collections over a sustained period amounts to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman