Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to collect his household waste. This is because the Council has provided a suitable remedy for the issues reported by Mr X. If Mr X continues to experience problems he would need to raise these with the Council before we could consider them.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has failed to provide him with refuse or recycling services since he moved to his property in 2018. As a result he has had to take his waste to a nearby waste/recycling centre.

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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. 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

3. I reviewed Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s responses. I shared my draft decision with Mr X and considered his comments.

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What I found

4. Mr X moved to his current property in 2018. He says he has had no bin collections since he moved in but only reported two missed collections starting in July 2020. He contacted the Council after taking his refuse to the tip to complain his rubbish had not been collected and then contacted the Council again to report that he did not have a black bin. The Council looked into Mr X’s concerns and agreed to monitor his collections to ensure they were carried out properly. It has received no reports of further missed collections at Mr X’s property but Mr X says it has missed one. He wants the Council to refund his council tax payments.
5. The Council has a legal obligation to provide household waste collections and when Mr X reported his first missed collection the Council looked into the issue promptly and took steps to put the matter right.
6. While Mr X apparently went to time and trouble to dispose of his refuse before his initial report he did not give the Council the opportunity to deal with the matter and we would not therefore recommend the Council refunds his council tax payments as he would like. Where missed collections are reported promptly we would expect a local authority to attempt to arrange a re-collection but by the time Mr X contacted the Council he had already disposed of his waste elsewhere. The Council’s records also confirm he has also not reported any further missed collections since the Council began monitoring them. The Council therefore believes the matter is resolved.
7. If Mr continues to experience issues with his refuse collections he should report them to the Council, promptly, in the first instance. If the Council does not come to collect his waste, and if it continues to miss his collections, he should complain again. But we will not investigate his complaint about issues he has not reported or raised with the Council and the single further missed collection he refers to does not cause significant injustice for which we would recommend a further remedy.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council has provided a suitable remedy for the issues reported by Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman