Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council did not correctly process a subscription for a garden waste service. This is because he is unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains the Council wrongly billed her address for two garden waste subscriptions when one of them was for her mother’s address.

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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 or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered Mrs X’s complaint, and her correspondence with the Council. I also considered information from the Council and its electronic portal. I considered Mrs X’s comments on a draft of my decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. Mrs X ordered a garden waste subscription to her mother’s property via the online Council portal for waste management. Mrs X’s husband, Mr X, ordered the same subscription for their property.
5. Mrs X’s mother received a waste collection sticker for her bin; however the Council did not collect her waste. Mr and Mrs X did not receive a sticker. On contact, the Council told Mrs X there was not a subscription for her mother’s property. Instead there were two subscriptions for Mrs X’s property and it sent a sticker for their property. The Council transferred one of the subscriptions to Mrs X’s mother’s property.
6. Mrs X complains the Council has inferred that she “is a liar” as she knows she ordered the subscription for her mother’s address as her mother received a sticker. Mrs X complains the Council told her they could not change the details manually, but then did so. Mrs X also complains this maladministration meant the Council did not collect her mother’s garden waste for three weeks and their gardener could not complete his work.
7. Mrs X would like for the Council to apologise for the maladministration that led to the missed bin collections, and provide a refund for them, as well as complete an investigation into the automated portal.
8. The Council does not accept that any maladministration has taken place, and according to its online portal, both requests for garden waste subscriptions were registered to Mrs X’s address. Despite this, it contacted the waste management service and asked officers to move one of the subscriptions to Mrs X’s mother’s address.

Assessment

9. I will not investigate this complaint as it is unlikely that I would find evidence of fault by the Council. Mrs X complains that she ordered a subscription to her mother’s house, but that the Council changed the address. The Council’s portal shows that both subscriptions were ordered to Mrs X’s address. I do not know why Mrs X’s mother received a sticker for her bin, but I do not think this would be enough evidence to justify an investigation.
10. The Council has also rectified the issue during discussions with Mrs X, and there are now subscriptions in place for both properties. It is unlikely that an investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

11. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely that I would find sufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman