Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about missed bin collections and alleged abuse by the collection crew. This is because the Council has provided an appropriate response and the situation has improved. In addition, there is insufficient injustice to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains of missed recycling collections and says the crew verbally abused his family.

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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 an investigation if we believe:

• the Council has provided a fair response, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and watched YouTube videos provided by Mr X. I considered the Council’s response and found out there has not been a missed collection since April. I considered comments Mr X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. Between late November and late March, there were 13 missed collections in Mr X’s street. They were all missed recycling collections apart from two missed refuse collections in March. There was also one missed collection in April which was linked to problems caused by COCID-19. The records suggest 10 of the missed collections directly affected Mr X. One of the missed collections affected other homes in the street, one miss was due to contamination, and one report had been raised in error.
5. Mr X complained about the missed collections. He also said the crew had verbally abused his family and he gave the Council YouTube videos of the incident.
6. In response the Council apologised for the missed collections. It said the crews had experienced access problems but had failed to notify managers. The Council said it had applied sanctions to the contractor. The Council explained the contract was ending in March and the service would be moving in-house. The Council said it hoped this would lead to an improvement in the service. The Council said it could not comment on the alleged abuse because there was no sound on the videos.

Assessment

7. I will not start an investigation because the service has improved, it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome, and there is not enough remaining injustice.
8. There were several missed recycling collections during the winter of 2019/20; missed collections are annoying and frustrating. However, the Council apologised, sanctioned the contractor, and told Mr X the steps it was taking to improve the service. There have not been any missed collections since April which suggests the changes have been successful and the Council provided an appropriate response to the complaint. Mr X says he is complaining about the poor service, not about the current situation. However, I have to take into account the actions the Council has taken to put things right and to consider if there is enough remaining injustice to warrant an investigation. As the situation has improved I have decided there is not enough outstanding injustice to warrant an investigation.
9. Mr X says the whole street was affected but he is the only person who has received an apology. I do not know if this is correct because some of his neighbours might have complained and may have received an apology. But, regardless, Mr X is not acting on behalf of his neighbours so this point does not need to be pursued further.
10. I have watched the videos and while there was clearly a verbal exchange there is no evidence of verbal abuse because there is no sound. Given the lack of evidence it is unlikely an investigation would be able to uphold Mr X’s complaint that his family was verbally abused.

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Final decision

11. I will not start an investigation because the situation has improved and it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome. In addition, once the outcome is taken into account, there is not enough remaining injustice to require an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman