Summary: Mrs X complains that although she should receive assisted collections, the Council routinely fails to collect her household waste and recycling when collecting her neighbours’ bins. The Council’s repeated failings in the assisted collection service it provided to Mrs X amount to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X complains that although she should receive assisted collections, the Council routinely fails to collect her household waste and recycling when collecting her neighbours’ bins. Mrs X states her waste is often only collected if her neighbour takes her bin to the edge of her property. Then when her bins are emptied, the crews do not return her bins to the correct position.
2. Mrs X complains that despite repeatedly reporting the missed collections and making complaints, the problem has continued.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mrs X;
• Mrs 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

6. 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.
7. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
8. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
9. 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

10. Mrs X states there have been problems with her assisted collections since the Council agreed to provide the service in 2019. It affects both recycling and household waste collections, but as Mrs X does not have much recycling this is less of an issue.
11. The collection crews should collect Mrs X’s bins from the front of her property and return them when they are empty. But Mrs X states the crew only empty her bins if a friend moves them to the edge of her property. Mrs X is unable to move the bins herself and states that if a friend is unable to present the bins for her, her bins do not get emptied. Mrs X states the situation improves for a short period when she complains but then the missed collections start again.
12. According to the Council’s records Mrs X reported one missed recycling collection and four missed household waste collections in 2020. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. The records suggest the Council made some, but not all, collections within a few days of them being missed. The records also suggest the Council also missed other collections.
13. For example, Mrs X reported a missed collection on 19 March 2020, which the Council closed on 1 April 2020. This suggests the collection scheduled for 26 March was also missed. If the Council had made this collection it could have closed the report that day. Similarly, Mrs X reported a missed collection on 4 September 2020, which the Council closed on 17 September 2020. If the Council had made the collection scheduled for 9 September 2020, it could have closed the report that day.
14. The Council states there may be a delay between when it goes out to collect a missed collection and when it closes the report, so it is not necessarily the case that it also missed the intervening collections. However, the Council has not provided evidence of the dates it made the missed collections where they are different to the date the report was closed.
15. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mrs X also made a formal complaint. In January 2020 Mrs X complained the collection crews never come onto her property to collect her bins and only empty them if someone puts them out for her. The Council apologised for the poor service and confirmed the Service Manager had given written instructions to the crews about replacing her bins at the point of storage with the lids closed. The Service Manager had also spoken to the crews about collecting the bins from Mrs X’s property.
16. As the Council missed the next scheduled collection, Mrs X asked it to review her complaint. The Council again confirmed the Service manager would remind the crews about Mrs X’s assisted collections. It also arranged to monitor Mrs X’s collections for the next 13 weeks to ensure the crews followed these instructions.
17. The Council’s monitoring records show it made all collections bar one during this period.
18. Mrs X made a further complaint in September 2020 as the Council had not collected her recycling and household waste for a fortnight. The Council apologised and confirmed it aimed to collect the missed waste at the next available opportunity. If this was not possible it would clear the excess waste on the next scheduled collection. As the problem continued, Mrs X asked for her complaint to be reviewed.
19. In November 2020, the Council confirmed the Depot Manager would speak to the crews to remind them of Mrs X’s assisted collections. The Council also set up further monitoring for the next 12 weeks to ensure the collections were completed.
20. As this has not resolved the problem, Mrs X asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. She states there was a further missed collection in December 2020 and three missed collections in January 2021.
21. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Mrs X has assisted collection status.
22. The Council states there is no evidence to suggest a repeated failure to collect Mrs X’s assisted household waste and recycling. It considers it likely the round may have been impacted by COVID-19, with relief staff covering for regular crew who were required to self-isolate. It suggests relief crews may not work through their list of assisted collections as thoroughly as regular crews would.
23. The Council states monitoring is currently in place and no service failures have been noted so far.

Analysis

24. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mrs X’s household waste and recycling. These failings in the service amount to fault.
25. The Council states Mrs X has reported a total of five missed collections, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Mrs X’s complaints refer to missed collections not included in the Council’s records. Mrs X also states there have been missed collections during the current monitoring period while the Council has not noted any service failures.
26. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections, or when it actually collected Mrs X’s household waste and recycling.
27. The Council has confirmed Mr X is registered for assisted collections and that details of assisted collections appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and are added to the crew packs. It has also repeatedly reminded crews of Mrs X’s assisted collections, in writing and verbally. It is therefore unclear why Mrs X’s bins are missed when the rest of the street are collected.
28. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Mrs X a significant injustice. Mrs X has had to rely on other people to present her bins for collection, and when this was not possible, had to manage uncollected waste left at her property. She has experienced frustration and disappointment that despite her complaints and reporting missed collections the problem has not been resolved. Mrs X has also been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter.

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Agreed action

29. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £150 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections has caused.
30. The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.
31. The Council has also agreed to extend its monitoring of Mrs X’s household waste and recycling collections for a further two months to ensure the assisted collections are carried out properly.

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Final decision

32. The Council's repeated failings in the assisted collection service it provided to Mrs X amount to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman