Summary: Mrs X complains her waste bins have been regularly omitted from collections. She also says the Council has not handled her complaints well. The Council is at fault. It has agreed an apology, a financial remedy and monitoring to ensure sustained improvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mrs X, is registered for assisted bin collections with the Council. She complained that since 2016 her bins had been regularly omitted from collections.
2. She also complained that her complaints have not been handled adequately by the Council. In particular, she said that after her complaint reached Stage 2 in December 2019, the Council treated further complaints made in 2020 (which she says demonstrated that the issue had not been satisfactorily resolved) at Stage 1.
3. She asked for compensation, an apology and for the issue to be permanently rectified.

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What I have investigated

4. I have investigated Mrs X’s complaints about her bin collections from 2019 onwards and the Council’s responses to these.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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)
6. 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)
7. 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

8. I spoke to Mrs X’s representative. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council. I also sent Mrs X and the Council my draft statement and considered their comments before finalising my decision.

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What I found

9. Mrs X is represented by her daughter, Y. Since 2016 Y has been complaining to the Council on behalf of Mrs X about sporadic missed bin collections. In 2019 the problem worsened. Y reported seven bin collections most of which were in the latter part of the year. In December, the Council escalated her complaint to stage 2 of its complaints process. It blamed “teething problems” due to the new collection rounds and that collection crews would be issued with a memo to sign to confirm collection. It also said supervisors would be checking Mrs X’s bin collections periodically.
10. Y reported further missed collections in January and February 2020. Between March and May 2020 Y did not visit Mrs X due to the national lockdown, so she did not report any missed collections. In June she reported two missed collections. She also wrote to the Council asking for compensation for her mother. The Council responded to say her next point of escalation would be the Ombudsman, but we were not accepting new complaints at the time due to the pandemic. The Council added that there had been a management change at One Trafford, which is the public-private partnership responsible for the Council’s waste collections. It said it had therefore logged a new stage 1 complaint. On questioning by Y, it confirmed there was a new operational manager in place. Y was unhappy with this and asked for the complaint to be escalated.
11. In July 2020 the operational manager of the waste collection service visited Mrs X. The Council wrote to Y the same month to say her June complaint had been escalated to Stage 2. It blamed Covid-19 and repeated its earlier advice that crews had been issued with memos.
12. In August Y reported another missed collection.
13. I spoke to Y in October. She told me collections were still being missed and that Mrs X had been reduced to tears over the issue. She also said she felt Mrs X’s bins were being missed out because she had a long drive, as a neighbour with assisted collections but a shorter drive had not experienced the same problems.
14. The Council’s records of Mrs X’s missed collections did not match Y’s records. The Council said this was because of a manual error and because complaints on Mrs X’s behalf made by Y had been recorded separately. It said it had implemented a new system which “should allow it in future to ensure that all property-related enquiries are captured”.
15. The Council told me a new way of working introduced in October 2019 and pandemic related issues had led to service problems. It added: “Unfortunately it is the case in any waste collection service that a 100% collection rate cannot be guaranteed. However, the Council has standard processes in place so that if a missed collection is reported it can ensure that crews return to collect the missed bin.” It added: “The Council acknowledges that Mrs. [X] historically received a collection service which did not attain the standards it would have wished. Whilst the Council acknowledges that it will take time for residents’ confidence in the service provided be restored, the significant service improvements put in place in recent months should have gone a long way to remediate any injustice which Mrs. [X] has experienced.”

Analysis

16. The Council is at fault for failing to collect Mrs X’s bins over a protracted period. The improvement measures its contractor has put in place have not resulted in sustained change. Mrs X continues to experience missed collections. This is injustice to Mrs X.
17. I do not find the Council was at fault in its complaint handling. The correct process after stage 2 was to refer the case to us, but as we were closed to new complaints due to the pandemic the Council was unable to do this. Its treatment of Y’s further complaint at stage 1 was not usual process but allowed further processing of the matter.
18. The Council has agreed to pay £250 to compensate Mrs for her distress and her time and trouble. It will also apologise and put monitoring in place to ensure the problem does not recur next year. In response to my draft decision the Council’s waste contractor Amey said: “We will keep monitoring the property to ensure the service the resident receives is of the highest standard. I do understand the upset and frustration this can cause if not rectified at the earliest opportunity and I do apologise for the lack of professionalism and understanding during the early stages of the resident’s complaints going back to 2016.”

Agreed action

19. Within one month of my decision the Council has agreed to:
1. Apologise to Mrs X;
2. Pay her £250 to compensate for distress caused by the missed bin collections and her time and trouble in making the complaint; and
3. Put monitoring in place to ensure any improvement is sustained next year.

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Final decision

20. I have completed my investigation with a finding of fault by the Council. It has agreed to make an apology, a financial remedy and monitoring to ensure sustained improvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman