Summary: Mrs B complains the Council has not dealt with her refuse collections properly. The Council is at fault because it has not properly provided an assisted bin collection, has not collected refuse, has blocked her gate and has not dealt with her complaints properly. Mrs B has suffered distress and has not received the refuse service she should have done. The Council has agreed to pay Mrs B £100 for her time and trouble, a further £100 for distress, remove household refuse, identify workable arrangements, provide guidance to staff, monitor Mrs B’s collections and review its assisted bins service.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who, I shall refer to as Mrs B, complains the Council has not dealt with her refuse collections properly because it has failed to provide assisted bin collections, has failed to collect domestic refuse, has left her gate blocked by bins and has failed to deal with her complaint properly.
2. Mrs B says she has been threatened with enforcement action, has had to pay to have rubbish removed and has not received a refuse collection service.

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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)
5. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I spoke to Mrs B and considered the details of her complaint as well as the Council’s response. I reviewed documents sent by the Council and Mrs B.
8. Mrs B 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

9. 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.

The Council’s complaints procedure

10. The Council has a two stage complaints procedure:
• At the initial stage, the Council will acknowledge the complaint, investigate the complaint and respond within ten days wherever possible.
• At the review stage, a complainant can submit their complaint within 28 days for review by a senior manager. The Council will acknowledge the complaint, a senior manager will investigate the complaint and respond within ten days wherever possible.
11. The Council has adopted the following definitions:
• Unreasonable behaviour and unreasonably persistent complainants – are people who, because of the nature or frequency of the contacts with us, hinder our consideration of theirs, or other people’s complaints.
• Vexatious complaints – are those made without sufficient grounds, but made especially so as to cause annoyance and disruption.
12. Where the Council decides to treat someone as an unreasonable or vexatious complainant, it will write to them to tell them why their behaviour falls into that category and what action is being taken.

What happened

13. In 2019 Mrs B experienced problems with the actions of a bin operative and also about an issue with one of her neighbours moving her bins around.
14. In February 2020, Mrs B was still experiencing issues with a neighbour and having problems with her refuse bins. The Council added her to its assisted collection scheme and provided her with smaller bins as a temporary solution.
15. In June 2020, Mrs B advised the Council she was having problems with the new arrangement and asked for someone to contact her. She initially received no response and contacted the Council again in August. She said the temporary arrangement agreed in February no longer worked. Mrs B sent pictures of her bin positions to the Council and asked whether her proposed arrangements were acceptable. The Council confirmed they were.
16. In October and November, Mrs B complained to the Council that her assisted bins were not being replaced correctly and were being left obstructing her front gate. The Council did not respond to her complaints.
17. Mrs B complained to the Council again in January 2021, stating she was still having problems and the temporary measure put in place in February 2020 had not been reviewed after the Covid 19 lockdown as she had been told it would be. The Council did not respond to Mrs B’s complaint, recording that she had raised these issues regularly and she was being treated fairly.
18. Mrs B continued to complaint to the Council in February 2021 about her bins not being returned to the right place, her complaints had not been responded to, she had been removed from the assisted collection scheme and bins had been left blocking her gate repeatedly. The Council recorded that Mrs B had continually complained about her waste collection over a long period of time.
19. The Council served a notice on Mrs B telling her what she had to do about her waste.
20. In March 2021, Mrs B again contacted the Council, asking it to remove her bins because the Council hadn’t provided an accessible waste facility, had not re-assessed her situation as it said it would, she still had problems with disposing of her waste and the Council had served the notice on her, meaning she had no other option in order to avoid fines.
21. The Council removed Mrs B’s small bins and sent a final response to her.
22. The Council advised the Ombudsman that it could not renew Mrs B’s assisted refuse collection because it was waiting for evidence from her. On the same day the Council told Mrs B that her assisted collection would be in place in seven days.
23. Five days later, the Council wrote to Mrs B telling her it needed medical evidence from her to continue with her assisted collection. Mrs B said she had already supplied evidence to the Council but provided a new letter from her doctor dated March 2021.
24. In April 2021, Mrs B contacted the Council asking for an update and was advised she had an assisted collection in place again. The Council stated to her that it would enter her property and remove bagged waste because she had asked for bins to be removed earlier in the year.
25. Mrs B asked the Council to remove refuse that had accumulated in her back yard during the period she had not received any refuse collection. The Council refused to remove the accumulated refuse from Mrs B’s yard.

Analysis

26. Information from the Council shows Mrs B complained about bins not placed in the correct location on four occasions between September 2020 and January 2021. The Council’s records show these were not responded to. This is fault by the Council.
27. The Council did respond to Mrs B’s complaint in February 2021 telling her that her assisted collection service had ended. There is no evidence Mrs B was advised of this beforehand. This is fault by the Council.
28. The Council processed an application for an assisted collection for Mrs B. The Council sent an email to Mrs B saying this would be in place, but told the Ombudsman separately that it needed further information. Conflicting information was provided by the Council. Mrs B was only informed the Council needed more information five days later. This is fault by the Council.
29. Mrs B provided a letter to the Council from her GP. There was a delay of one month before the Council responded to Mrs B confirming her assisted collection had been granted. Mrs B had to chase the Council for this response before it was provided. This is fault by the Council.
30. The Council removed Mrs B’s bins when she continued to complain, without addressing her complaint. It is clear the Council considered Mrs B an unreasonably persistent complainant. It seized the opportunity to remove her bins when she requested this as last resort after the Council had failed to resolve her complaint and had served an environmental notice on her.
31. I have seen the pictures sent to the Council by Mrs B, which show an operative had blocked her gate with refuse bins on at least one occasion. Council records show no action was taken. This is fault by the Council.
32. The environmental notice given to Mrs B did not apply a sanction to Mrs B. The Council was entitled to send a notice. This is not fault by the Council.
33. The Council did not follow its complaints process when dealing with Mrs B’s complaints. There was also no information about how to progress her complaint to the Ombudsman in the Council’s final response. This is fault by the Council.
34. The Council did not follow its own policy because it did not write to Mrs B in respect of its consideration of her being an unreasonably persistent complainant. This is fault by the Council.
35. Emails show there is a bin in front of Mrs B’s house which has contained tiles since March 2021. The Council’s website identifies materials which can be placed in green and brown bins. The removal of this material remains the responsibility of Mrs B as it not considered household waste. This is not fault by the Council.
36. Mrs B suffered distress, spent time chasing the Council, did not receive a proper refuse collection service and did not have some of her complaints addressed.

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Agreed action

37. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
• Pay Mrs B £100 in respect of time and trouble;
• Pay Mrs B £100 in respect of distress caused to her;
• Arrange removal (one time only) of any remaining accumulated household refuse remaining in bins/containers in Mrs B’s rear yard;
• Identify workable arrangements for refuse collection that take full consideration of Mrs B’s medical circumstances and imminent social care adaptations and agree them in writing with Mrs B;
• Provide written instructions including photographs of the acceptable arrangements for refuse crews;
• Monitor collection arrangements for 2 further months to ensure they are successful;
• Provide guidance to staff to follow the Council’s policy when dealing with service complaints and unreasonably persistent complainants; and
• Review the assisted bins service to ensure notifications that this service is ending are sent to service users before the service is withdrawn, to enable them to reapply in sufficient time.

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Final decision

38. I have found fault by the Council causing injustice to Mrs B. I have now completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman