Summary: Mr X complains the Council has not provided him with the agreed assisted collection service. The Council’s repeated failings in the assisted collection service it provided to Mr X amount to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complains the Council has not provided him with the agreed assisted collection service. He complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste on the scheduled day. And that when the Council does collect his waste, the crew do not return the bins the correct point with the lids closed. They also walk across his grass, and do not close his gate.

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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. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the information provided by Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mr X; and
• Mr X 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

5. 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.
6. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
7. 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.
8. 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

9. Mr X is unable to move his bins himself, so the Council has agreed to provided him with an assisted collection service. Mr X complains this service is poor. He states the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste on the scheduled day. And that when the Council does collect his waste, the crew do not always return the bins the correct point with the lids closed. The crew also walk across his grass, and do not close his gate.
10. According to the Council’s records Mr X reported six missed household waste collections between July 2019 and January 2020. 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. The records also suggest the Council also missed other collections.
11. For example, Mr X reported missed collections on 29 August and 18 September 2019, which the Council closed on 15 October and 8 November 2019, respectively. This is curious as if the Council made the collection on 15 October 2019, it could have closed both reports that day. It also suggests the Council missed other collections as if the Council had made the other scheduled collections, it could have closed the reports sooner.
12. Similarly, Mr X reported missed collections on 8 and 22 January 2020, which the Council closed on 30 January and 17 February 2020, respectively. Again, it is curious that the Council did not close both reports on the same day.
13. 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.
14. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also made a formal complaint to the Council. In March 2019 Mr X complained that although he saw collection vehicles enter and leave his street, they did not collect his household waste. Mr X complained he had experienced similar issues last year, which were only resolved after an inspector visited him. He asked the Council to arrange for an inspector to visit him again to discuss the current issues.
15. The Council’s response to Mr X’s complaint apologised for any inconvenience and confirmed the depot manager would speak to the crew. Mr X contacted the Council again in September 2019 as his bin had not been collected. He also complained that when the Council had emptied his bin two weeks earlier, the crew had left the bin open and had not closed his garden gate.
16. In December 2019 Mr X asked the Council to review his complaint as the Council had missed another collection. Mr X was also unhappy that when the crew had emptied his bin the previous week, they had left they left the bin lid open again and there was now rainwater in the bin. Mr X also complained the collection crews walked across his garden rather than take the path.
17. The Council confirmed it had escalated the matter to the depot manager who would speak to the crews to remind them of the assisted collection, to close the bin lid and not to walk across Mr X’s garden. It also confirmed it would monitor Mr X’s collections for the next month.
18. As this did not resolve the issue and there were further missed collections, Mr X asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. Mr X states a Council officer subsequently visited him. This led to an improvement in service as the crew began collecting his bin from his back garden, emptying, and then returning it. Mr X believes there was then a change in crews as the problems began again. He states that rather than move his bin the crew now take the bags out of his bin and carry them to the collection vehicle. This means they have their hand full and so do not close the bin lid or his garden gate. Mr X considers the collection service in general is poor and states the crew routinely leaves his neighbours’ bins across the footpath rather than putting them back by their drives.
19. 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 Mr X has assisted collection status.
20. The Council states the repeated missed collections were due to Mr X presenting his bins in his back garden. The crews were unaware of this and are not permitted to go into back gardens and so could not initially find Mr X’s bins. It has since agreed that Mr X will present his bins next to the back gate so that the collection crews can just open the gate to collect the bins. The Council states Mr X has not reported a missed collection since 22 January 2020 which suggests the issue is resolved.

Analysis

21. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s household waste. These failings in the service amount to fault.
22. The Council accepts it has missed collections, and that there will have been delays in making these missed collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I do not consider them to be a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections. I consider it likely the Council missed more collections than its records suggest.
23. I recognise the Council has taken action to address the missed collections, and the service has improved in this respect.
24. The Council has confirmed Mr X is registered for assisted collections, so his bins should be collected and returned to the agreed point, with the lids closed. This has not routinely happened. The failings in the assisted collection service the Council has provided to Mr X amounts to fault.
25. The Council has not provided any details of reports of problems with the crew leaving the bin lids or Mr X’s garden gate open. But it does not dispute that there have been issues with Mr X’s assisted collections. It has apologised and reminded crews to close the bin lids and Mr X’s gate, and not to walk across his garden. It is therefore unclear why this continues to be a problem.
26. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X had to find ways to manage the uncollected household waste left at his property. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to ensure his bin and garden gate are closed after each collection. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

27. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular household waste collections and to close his bin and gate as part of the assisted collection service has caused.
28. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

29. The Council’s repeated failings in the assisted collection service it provided to Mr X amount to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman