Summary: There is no fault in the assisted refuse collection service offered to a householder because of her disability. The Council collects rubbish from her front door weekly and the recycling every two weeks. It has missed two collections over the past year, but has revisited quickly when told.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Ms B, complains the Council has not made adequate assisted collection arrangements for cardboard waste from her flat.
2. Ms B says that she struggles to put cardboard in the communal bins due to her disabilities and that keeping waste cardboard in her flat is difficult. Ms B says that ideally she would like to be rehoused to a suitable property to eliminate the problem.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated events from February 2019 onwards. The final section of this statement contains my reason(s) for not investigating the rest of the complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. 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

6. I read the papers put in by Ms B and discussed the complaint with her. Ms B asked us to arrange an advocate to help her make her complaint. We agreed to try do this, but were unable to find someone. Ms B has commented that she feels she has been unable to put her complaint to us properly without an advocate.
7. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
8. Ms B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
9. Ms B asked for her complaint to be withdrawn if we did not intend to investigate further after considering her comments on the draft decision. Once we have reached a certain stage in an investigation we generally will not accept requests to withdraw a complaint because we need to be even handed and fair to both parties.

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What I found

10. There is a flight of stairs and two fire doors between Ms B’s flat (rented from a housing association) and the communal bins. Ms B has a disability that means putting rubbish in the bins is difficult for her.
11. The Council says it has provided a bespoke assisted collection service from outside the front door to her flat, weekly for general rubbish and fortnightly for recycling, including cardboard.
12. The Council has said it missed two collections in 2020. The Council collected one the next day and one after 5 days.
13. Ms B says that the recycling collection is working for small cardboard boxes, but she has a problem storing the larger pieces of cardboard in her flat until collection day. The housing association she rents from has said that cardboard cannot be left stored in the communal hall areas other than on collection days due to the fire risk.
14. I have looked at the information sent to me. I can find no evidence of fault in the refuse collection service offered to Ms B. The Council collects refuse from her flat door, recognising that it needs to make reasonable adjustments for her disability. It has also arranged to revisit quickly when two collections were missed. I understand that Ms B would like to be rehoused as storing cardboard packaging can be difficult inside her flat but this will be considered as part of the separate complaint to the Council on her housing application. The Council has contacted her landlord to see if another solution to cardboard storage can be sorted out, but it cannot do anything further if the landlord does not agree.

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Final decision

15. I have completed my investigation as I have found no evidence of fault with the Council’s assisted refuse collection service.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

16. I have not investigated Ms B’s complaint before February 2019. Ms B made an official complaint to the Council about her refuse collection and received a response in July 2018. She had the details of the Ombudsman but did not make a complaint to us until July 2019.
17. The Ombudsman expects people to make complaints within 12 months of the time they first become aware of the problem. This is a late complaint and I have seen no good reason to accept it for investigation now. So, I do not intend to exercise discretion to go back further than February 2019.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman