Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to close his bin lid when its collection crew returns his bin to his property. This is because the matter does not cause Mr X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council’s refuse collection crews do not close the lid of his bin when they return it to his property. As a result the bin fills with water when it rains.

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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 or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I reviewed Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s responses. I shared my draft decision with Mr X and invited his comments.

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What I found

4. Mr X complained to the Council in June 2020 that its refuse collection crews had returned his bin to his property and left the bin lid open. He said this caused his bin to fill with water and he then had to put his rubbish in the wet bin. The Council apologised and agreed to remind its crews to close bin lids when returning bins after emptying.
5. Mr X contacted the Council again in July 2020 when its refuse collection crews again failed to close the lid of his bin. The Council apologised again and agreed to monitor his refuse collections to ensure they were completed properly. Mr X says this has still not resolved the problem and all he wants is for the Council to close his bin lid.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. The Council provides Mr X with an assisted bin collection so it collects his bin from the front of his property, empties it and returns it to him. While I appreciate it is frustrating that the collection crew has failed to close the bin lid the issue does not cause him significant injustice warranting further investigation by the Ombudsman. The Council has agreed to monitor Mr X’s bin collections and if the crew continue not to close the lid Mr X should report this in the usual way. Mr X may then choose to close the bin lid himself when he is aware of the issue and even if the bin collects water in the meantime it is the collection crew who have to deal with this when they next collect his bin.

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Final decision

7. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the issue does not cause Mr X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman