Summary: Miss X complained the Council consistently failed to collect her household waste on the scheduled day after she moved into her property in the summer of 2020. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Miss X’s household waste on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner when collections were missed, amounts to fault. This fault caused Miss X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X complained the Council consistently failed to collect her household waste on the scheduled day after she moved into her property in the summer of 2020. She complained that despite repeatedly reporting the missed collections and making a complaint, the problem continued.

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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. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Miss X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• Miss 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

Refuse 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. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
6. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
7. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.

What happened here

8. Miss X moved in to her property in late June 2020. She complains that although the Council collected her recycling as scheduled, the Council routinely failed to collect her household waste on the scheduled day. This led to an accumulation of waste during a period of warm weather which attracted rats and maggots. Miss X states the Council only collected her household waste in response to her complaints.
9. According to the Council’s records, Miss X reported ten missed household waste collections between late June and September 2020. This suggests that during this three-month period the Council only collected Miss X’s household waste on the scheduled days three times.
10. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed indicate there were delays in making the missed collections with multiple week’s waste being collected at a time.
11. Miss X made a formal complaint to the Council in July 2020. She stated that in the four weeks she had lived in the property the Council had not once collected her household waste on the scheduled day. Miss X asked the Council to collect her household waste every Monday as scheduled. The Council apologised for the poor service and confirmed a service manager had arranged for a clear up crew to collect her household waste that day. It also confirmed it would put Miss X’s property on a checklist to be monitored by the local manager to ensure her waste was collected.
12. As there were further missed collections, Miss X asked the Council to review her complaint. The Council confirmed it would remind the crews of Miss X’s collection and would monitor her collections for the following 13 weeks.
13. Miss X remained dissatisfied and has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states Miss X’s street borders two mapping areas and due to an administrative error the appropriate map covering this road was not updated as it should have been. This led to a number of missed collections. However, as soon as it was identified this issue was addressed and collections have stabilised. The Council states Miss X has not reported a missed collection for two months, which suggests the issue is resolved.

Analysis

14. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Miss X’s household waste on the scheduled days for three months. These failings in the service amount to fault.
15. The Council states the missed collections were due to an administrative error which it identified and promptly rectified. There were three missed collections during the period the Council monitored Miss X’s collections. These were at the start of the monitoring period, and the service had improved, with all collections taking place as scheduled, by the end of the 13 weeks. This supports the Council’s assertion that the problem has been resolved.
16. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Miss X an injustice. Miss X had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste left at her property during periods of warm weather, and the associated problems of maggots and rodents. She has experienced frustration and disappointment with the missed collections and been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

17. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 in recognition of the frustration, difficulties the failure to make regular household waste collections caused.
18. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

19. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Miss X’s household waste on the scheduled day, or in a timely manner when collections were missed, amounts to fault. This fault caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman