Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council will not allow the complainant to escalate missed bin reports. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains that the Council will not allow people to escalate a report of a missed bin collection. He wants the Council to change the system to allow him to do this.

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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 an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and the Council’s responses. I considered information on the Council’s website and comments Mr X made in reply to a draft decision.

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What I found

Reporting procedure for missed collections

4. The Council’s website explains how people can report a missed bin collection. It also says that if someone has reported a missed collection they can, after one day, re-report it if the crew has not returned to collect it. The system will recognise the report as a second report and mark it as a priority.
5. People can also log a complaint about missed collections.

What happened

6. Mr X complains that the Council will not let him escalate a report of a missed bin collection if the waste is not collected after the initial report. He says he risks having to live with full bins, which may smell and create a health hazard, if he cannot escalate a missed collection.
7. In response to his complaint the Council gave information about how to report a missed collection and explained that a second report, about the same incident, is logged as such and treated as a priority.
8. Mr X has provided a screenshot and video of attempts he made to re-report a missed collection. One example is from March and one from July. In both cases the system said the Council was investigating his report.

Assessment

9. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council provides a way to escalate a report of a missed collection that has not been rectified. The website explains the person can make the report again and the system recognises it as a second report and marks it as a priority. In addition, people can make a complaint if they have problems with missed collections.
10. I asked the Council about the examples Mr X provided. It said people could not re-report in March due to a combination of Covid-19 and a change of contractor. It cannot explain what happened with the July example. However, it has provided a screenshot of people who have reported and re-reported missed collections in June and, in each case, the second report is listed as an escalation. I cannot share this data with Mr X because it includes confidential information about other people. However, I am satisfied the system does allow people to re-report. The Council also explained that when it rectifies a missed collection it sends the person an email to let them know the waste has been collected. This email includes a link so the person can dispute that the waste has been collected.

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Final decision

11. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman