Summary: The Council is at fault for regularly missing Mr X’s bin collections over a two year period. It also delayed in responding to Mr X’s complaint about this service failure. The Council has agreed to remedy Mr X’s injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council missed collections of his communal bins. He said this has been happening over a two year period. He says the bins are unsightly and unhygienic and now there is a rat problem.

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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. 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

4. I have considered Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s response to Mr X and to my enquiries.
5. 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

Council’s procedure for missed bin collections

6. In response to my enquiries, the Council explained how it records missed bin collections. It said:
• The Council provides the crew with a print out of the daily schedule each day.
• The crew use this to record any issues that prevent the scheduled collection from taking place.
• The printout is saved for two weeks then disposed of.
• Non collections are then transferred onto a spreadsheet.

What happened

Missed bin collections

7. Mr X said that since February 2018, the Council has regularly missed his communal bin collections. The scheduled collection for Mr X’s street is on a Wednesday. He said he has had to call the Council most weeks to report the missed collection. He complained in February 2020 the Council missed four collections over a six week period.
8. I have seen an extract of the spreadsheet for Mr X’s street. It shows 16 missed collections between February 2019 and February 2021. During the course of my investigation, I asked Mr X what the situation had been like since he complained to us. He said there was a missed collection in July.
9. The Council records show that after each report of a missed collection, the Council returns, usually the next day, to collect the waste. The Council then shuts down the request. The Council explained that it deals with missed collections as a service request. It said that due to the level of requests, it does not provide an acknowledgment service to residents.

Delayed response to Mr X’s complaint escalation

10. When Mr X complained in February 2020, the Council responded quickly with a stage 1 response. It apologised and said the Council had now collected the waste and reminded the crew of the standards expected.
11. Upon receipt of the response, Mr X requested his complaint be escalated to stage 2 as he did not consider the Council’s response dealt with the ongoing problem.
12. The Council did not provide a stage 2 response until July 2020, nearly 5 months later. While there were no missed collections during this period, the Council’s records show the missed collections resumed in September 2020.

Council’s new procedure

13. In response to my enquiries, the Council informed me of a new crew monitoring procedure that it has adopted. In summary:
• Supervisors keep a record of the crew’s monitoring sheets.
• Supervisors put in place location monitoring. This is where there are specific locations that are experiencing issues with collections, or the service in general.
• Until the issues are fully resolved, the Council monitors these locations.

Analysis

Recording missed bin collections

14. The Council was at fault for missing Mr X’s bin collections. This was allowed to go on for over two years. Each time a collection was missed, Mr X reported it, and the Council collected it. This is unacceptable. Residents should not have to remind the Council to collect their waste.
15. At the time, the Council did not have adequate recording or monitoring methods in place. This meant the regular missed collections for Mr X’s specific location were not linked and therefore, no long term action was taken by the Council. I am pleased to see that a new procedure is now in place which should eliminate this type of system failure. Agreed action d) in paragraph 20 should test whether this process works.

Delay in escalating Mr X’s complaint request

16. In addition to the missed collections, the Council was at fault for its delayed response to Mr X’s complaint escalation request. The Council explained the reason for this was that the service was undertaking several changes at the time of his request. It also said the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the delivery of the service.
17. The delay in responding to Mr X caused him uncertainty about whether the issues would be resolved.
18. The Council also caused further delays by not responding to the Ombudsman’s enquiries within the prescribed timescales.

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Agreed action

19. Within 4 weeks of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Mr X for his missed collections and the Council’s delayed response to his complaint escalation.
2. Pay Mr X £200 for the distress and inconvenience he experienced for over two years.
3. Pay Mr X £200 for the time and trouble he experienced when pursuing this complaint. This was made worse by the Council’s delay in responding to the Ombudsman’s enquiries.
20. Within 12 weeks of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Provide the Ombudsman with a monitoring spreadsheet showing that Mr X’s bins have been collected on the scheduled days for a three month period.

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Final decision

21. I have completed my investigation. The Council was at fault for frequently missing Mr X’s bin collections and for taking 5 months to respond to his request to escalate his complaint. This fault caused Mr X an injustice and the Council has agreed to remedy Mr X’s injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman