Summary: Mr X complained the Council frequently failed to collect his household waste. We find the Council was at fault. It has agreed to pay Mr X £100 in recognition of the avoidable time and trouble he has been put to in reporting the missed collections. The Council will also consult with the highway authority about the possible introduction of parking restrictions to help resolve the collection issues.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council has frequently failed to collect his household waste since 2016. He said it failed to collect his food waste for several months during 2020. He said the missed collections had resulted in his bins smelling and caused him stress.

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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. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended). As Mr X complained to the Ombudsman in July 2020, I have investigated the Council’s actions from July 2019 onwards.
4. 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

• I read Mr X’s complaint to the Council and the Council’s response to him.
• I made enquiries of the Council and considered its response.
• 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

Household waste 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. Thanet collects general waste weekly and recycling on a fortnightly basis. In some areas it offers a food collection service that it collects weekly.

Reporting missed collections

6. The Council’s website says it will only collect a missed bin if it is reported by the end of the next working day after it was due to be collected. Otherwise, it collects the bin on the next scheduled collection.
7. Residents can report missed collections either on-line or by telephone. The missed collections are recorded on a customer contact. The record shows when and how the resident reported the missed collection and when the Council completed the rescheduled collection.
8. If a resident reports more than one missed collection, the Council considers it as a complaint. The Council operates a two-stage complaints procedure. If a person remains unhappy after its stage two response it directs them to the Ombudsman.

What happened

9. Mr X said he has experienced missed household waste collections since 2016. He complained to the Council in March 2019. It sent a stage two response at the end of April 2019. It accepted it had missed collections and said that was because of access issues caused by inconsiderate parking. It said when that happened, the Council would send out a smaller vehicle the same, or following day, but because of the size of the vehicle, recycling needed to be collected separately and that caused further delays. The Council said as it was an ongoing problem it would discuss the possibility of introducing parking restrictions.
10. Mr X complained about further missed collections in August 2019; January 2020 and April 2020. The Council sent complaint responses each time. It reiterated the access difficulties caused by parking. It said more recent missed collects were because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on staffing. It said it would monitor his collections.

The Council’s response to enquiries

11. The Council said Mr X reported a total of four missed collections in 2019 and five missed collections in 2020.
12. It said Mr X lives on a road with a sharp bend which in combination with parked cars restricts the road’s width. It said the bin wagon needed to reverse up the road to complete collections; however, because of residents’ parking it was not always possible to complete the required manoeuvre.
13. It said the bin crews had issued leaflets to parked vehicles causing access problems asking them to park in a different location on bin collection days. In addition, it said it contacted the highway authority in March 2019 about the need for parking restrictions but that was not responded to.
14. It said that when a resident reports a missed collection it returns to the collect the bins as soon as ‘operationally viable’. However, it has not been able to confirm the dates it collected Mr X’s rescheduled collections because staff absences meant its records were not updated correctly.
15. The Council stated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, it had to change its food waste collection service to stand-alone vehicles with different crews. It acknowledged that caused some disruption to service delivery because the crews were unfamiliar with the food waste rounds. It said it issued crews detailed maps and instructions to record collections issues. These were reviewed by waste supervisors after the collection to resolve any collection issues.

My findings

16. The Council accepted it has failed to collect Mr X’s household waste nine times since 2019. That was fault. That fault has put Mr X to the avoidable time and trouble of having to report missed collections to the Council.
17. The Council cannot confirm how soon after the reported missed collections it completed the rescheduled collections. That is also fault.
18. The Council has taken some steps to resolve the access difficulties caused by parked cars. However, it failed to follow up the need for parking restrictions with the highway authority. Given the ongoing difficulties and need to identify a long-term resolution that was fault.
19. The Council accepts there were difficulties with its food waste collections during COVID-19. It has issued waste collection maps and its supervisors are monitoring collections. The Council has apologised to Mr X for the inconvenience caused and has taken remedial action. That remedies the injustice caused.

Agreed action

20. Within one month of my final decision the Council has agreed to:
• Apologise to Mr X and pay him £100 for the avoidable time and trouble he has been put to in reporting missed collections to the Council.
21. The Council will monitor Mr X’s collections for a period of three months following my final decision.
22. Within two months of my final decision, the Council will update the Ombudsman on what it has done to progress the introduction of parking restrictions with the highway authority and provide a plan of its next steps.

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Final decision

23. The Council was at fault for failing to collect Mr X’s household waste. The council has agreed to my recommendations to remedy the injustice caused; therefore, I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman