Summary: Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste or recycling on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections are missed. The Council’s repeated failure to collect the household waste and recycling from Mr X’s street amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste or recycling on the scheduled day or in a timely manner when collections are missed. He states that despite making a complaint and being assured the service would improve the problem has continued.

Back to top

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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the information provided by Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mr X;
• Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

Back to top

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. Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect the household waste and recycling from his street on the scheduled day. Consecutive missed collections and delays in making the missed collections have led to a build up of waste, which has attracted rats.
9. According to the Council’s records, Mr X reported seven missed household waste collections and eight missed recycling collections in 2020. The records also show other residents in Mr X’s street reported numerous missed household waste and recycling collections in 2020.
10. All except the most recent reports are closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner. The records also suggest the Council also missed other collections.
11. For example, another resident reported a missed recycling collection on 22 June 2020, which the Council closed on 6 July 2020. This is curious as Mr X and the other resident reported the recycling collection scheduled for 6 July 2020 as missed. It is possible the Council returned to collect the missed recycling later that day. But this is unlikely as the Council did not close the reports for the missed collections on 6 July until 24 July 2020, having missed a further collection scheduled for 20 July 2020.
12. Similarly, Mr X reported a missed recycling collection on 31 August 2020, which the Council closed on 16 October 2020. This suggests the Council also missed the collections scheduled for 14 and 28 September and 12 October 2020. If the Council had made these scheduled collections, it could have closed the report much sooner.
13. 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.
14. In addition to reporting missed collections, in July 2020 Mr X also made a formal complaint. He complained the Council had repeatedly missed the household waste and recycling collections from his street over several months. Mr X was unhappy that when he logged missed collections he would get a standard response, but there was no permanent resolution. He asked the Council to collect the excess waste and ensure they received regular collections.
15. The Council advised the missed collections were due to the collection vehicles being unable to access Mr X’s street due to parked cars. To try and resolve the situation the Council would arrange to leaflet the vehicles with a request to make access available on collection day.
16. Mr X was unhappy with the Council’s response and asked the Council to review his complaint. The Council advised Mr X the access issues had now been resolved. It stated the regular driver for the household waste collection crew which serviced Mr X’s street had been off work. A replacement driver had covered the round, which led to delays. The regular driver had now returned, and the Council had collected Mr X’s household waste that day. The Council apologised for any inconvenience.
17. As this did not resolve the problem and there were further missed collections, Mr X asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. Mr X states the household waste collections have improved, but there are still problems with the recycling collections. Mr X states the collection vehicles do not attempt to pass the parked cars on his street. Instead, the crews walk down the street to collect the bins but keep missing his section of the street.
18. In response to my enquiries the Council states Mr X’s street is quite narrow, and that access to it has been worse during the COVID 19 pandemic with larger numbers of cars regularly parked in the street. As there are no viable alternative places where residents could park their cars, the Council does not consider leafletting residents about parking is a worthwhile exercise.
19. The Council states household waste and recycling collections from Mr X’s street will shortly be moved onto an alley cat round. The alley cat is a narrower vehicle which is better able to navigate restricted access. The Council states this type of vehicle is in limited supply, so resources and rounds need to be managed effectively. The depot has recently acquired a second alley cat, which will be used for Mr X’s street.

Analysis

20. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Ms X’s household waste and recycling. These failings in the service amount to fault.
21. The Council states Mr X has reported a total of 15 missed collections, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Mr X’s complaints refer to consecutive missed collections and waiting weeks for the Council to make collections.
22. 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 the household waste and recycling.
23. I also consider there to be fault in relation to the way the Council responded to Mr X’s complaint. The Council told Mr X it would leaflet the parked vehicles asking them to make access available on collection day, but it subsequently took the view this would not be effective. There is no record the Council advised Mr X of this change in position. The Council also told Mr X the situation had improved with the return of the regular driver for the household waste collection crew. But the change in driver for household waste collections does not explain why the recycling crew had missed collections from Mr X’s street or how the recycling collection service would improve.
24. This suggests the Council did not fully consider Mr X’s complaint or how to remedy it. The Council has since identified the service can be improved with the use of alley cat vehicles. This is to be welcomed, but I consider the Council should have properly investigated the cause of the problem and identified a solution sooner.
25. I recognise the Council has a limited number of alley cat vehicles, and it may not have been possible to add Mr X’s street to an alley cat route last year. But the Council was aware of the problem with collections and I would have expected it to identify a way to ensure it collected household waste and recycling from Mr X’s street as scheduled.
26. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected household waste and recycling left at his property, and the associated problem of rodents. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

Agreed action

27. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £200 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular household waste and recycling collections has caused.
28. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

29. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman