Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about a charge for a garden waste bin. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains that the Council says she must pay for a garden waste bin. Mrs X wants the Council to give her a free bin.

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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 comments Mrs X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Garden waste policy

4. The Council introduced a charge for garden waste bins in June 2018. Before June 2018 the Council provided free garden waste bins to households that asked for one. In April 2020 the Council introduced an annual charge for the garden waste collection service.

What happened

5. Mrs X moved to her current address in July 2019. She complained that the Council would not give her a free garden bin. She did not accept the Council had only given bins to people who had asked for them and she did not accept the previous owner had not asked for a bin. Mrs X says the previous owner made a telephone request for a bin but, for personal reasons, did not follow up the request.
6. The Council apologised for a long delay in replying to Mrs X’s complaint and for initially giving the wrong date for the introduction of charges for the bins. The delay in replying occurred because a problem with the system meant her complaint was not sent to the team. When the Council did reply, it explained that it only provided bins to people who had asked for one and that it had decided, in June 2018, to charge for the bins. It provided Mrs X with information showing that households in her road had asked for a bin. The requests for a bin ranged from 2004 to 2014. The Council confirmed Mrs X would have to pay for a bin and, from April, pay an annual charge for the service.
7. Mrs X maintains that the Council has not proved that people in her road only have a bin because they asked for one. She says more people have a bin than the records show asked for one. She says she paid for the garden waste service through her council tax and did not receive the service she paid for.

Assessment

8. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
9. Mrs X moved to her new address, in 2019, after the Council introduced a charge for bins in 2018. The Council’s decision to charge Mrs X for a bin is consistent with the policy so there is no reason to start an investigation.
10. Mrs X says the previous owner asked for a bin. The Council has no record of this. It would have been for the previous owner to pursue the provision of a bin with the Council. Regardless of what happened between the previous owner and the Council, and when or how other people in the road obtained bins, the fact remains there was no bin in the property when Mrs X moved in and she is required to pay if she wants a bin.
11. It is correct there was no garden subscription charge before April 2020 and the garden waste collection was a free discretionary service. But Mrs X could not benefit from this service because she had not bought a bin. If Mrs X had bought a bin she could have benefited from the free service before the charges started in 2020.

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Final decision

12. 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