Summary: Mr B complained that the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste. The Ombudsman found the Council was at fault in that there had been numerous missed collections since January 2019. In recognition of the injustice caused by this, the Council agreed to apologise to Mr B and pay him £150.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains that the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste. As a result, he has experienced inconvenience and frustration and was put to time and trouble in pursuing the matter.

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What I have investigated

2. Mr B says the problem has been ongoing since the end of 2013. The Council has provided evidence which confirms this. However, there is no evidence to suggest he reported any problems during 2016 and only one missed collection in 2017 and two in 2018. The Ombudsman will normally only investigate complaints about matters which took place within 12 months of someone claiming to us. But I have exercised discretion to investigate matters back to January 2019, 12 months before Mr B complained to the Council.

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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 investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered all the information provided by Mr B, made enquiries of the Council and considered its comments and the documents it provided.
7. Mr 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

Key facts

8. Mr B says there has been a long-standing pattern of problems with his waste collection going back several years. In the past, when his waste was not collected, he was able to take it to the landfill site himself but he is no longer able to do this for health reasons.
9. Mr B says the problems began when the Council changed from refuse bags to wheelie bins. He cannot use a wheelie bin because he has steep steps so is still issued with refuse bags for collection. A separate crew is required to collect the bags because the truck is too high for the crew to simply pick up the bag and throw it into the truck.
10. Mr B reported two missed collections in January 2019, one in February 2019 and one in October 2019.
11. On 7 January 2020 Mr B reported another missed collection and made a complaint to the Council.
12. The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint at stage 1 of its complaints procedure in February 2020.
13. Mr B reported further missed collections in March, September and October 2020.
14. On 6 October 2020 Mr B escalated his complaint to stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure. The Council wrote to Mr B on 16 October apologising for the problems he had been experiencing and stating that a supervisor would monitor the collections for the next six weeks to ensure they were made as scheduled.
15. The Council issued a stage 2 response in November 2020. It explained that Mr B is the only resident in his road that has refuse bag collection rather than a wheelie bin. Bag collections are made by a different crew and, sometimes, bags are not collected when regular crew members are absent. It apologised for the inconvenience. The letter said the Council was working on several new service initiatives that should resolve the problem.
16. Records show monitoring took place weekly from 20 October 2020 to 24 November 2020 and there were no problems during this period.
17. Mr B reported two further missed collections in January 2021. The supervisor discussed the issues with Mr B and confirmed she would speak to the crew and monitor the collections again. However, Mr B complained to the Ombudsman.
18. Mr B has not reported any missed collections since.

Analysis

19. The Council has provided a spreadsheet listing Mr B’s reports of missed collections. This shows that since January 2019 Mr B has reported 22 missed collections.
20. The Council says that, when a customer raises an issue with collections, officers will enter the details on the system. Automated daily reports are generated listing the address, the problem and any other relevant information. These reports are given to the recall crew for action which the Council aims to complete within seven working days.
21. The Council says that previously, when receiving repeated complaints, the address and issue would be added to the crew’s ‘lockout sheet’ which would require the driver to confirm the collection had been completed when reporting back to the supervisor at the end of the day. In April 2021 the Council changed its process by adopting ‘in cab’ technology which provides live information to supervisors and management about the status of collections on individual collection rounds. Repeated collection problems require subsequent collections to be signed off by a supervisor for the following four weeks. This means the supervisor must either attend the site to confirm the collection or contact the driver directly on the day of collection.
22. The Council has confirmed that Mr B’s address is locked on the ‘in cab’ system as one which must not be missed. The crew must confirm the waste from the address has been collected as scheduled or report any issues for the road to be marked as completed. The Council says the crew are also provided with ‘lockout’ sheets each morning indicating properties that are regularly missed with a reminder that they must be collected or a reason for non-collection provided.
23. Mr B says there has been a big improvement since January 2021 when a manager visited him to discuss the issues. He says there have been no problems since then.
24. I am satisfied the Council has taken action to resolve the problem. However, Mr B has suffered a significant injustice because of numerous missed collections over the last two and half years. This has caused him inconvenience and frustration and he was put to time and trouble in pursuing the matter.

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Agreed action

25. The Council has agreed that, within one month of the Ombudsman’s final decision, it will:
• apologise to Mr B for the frustration, inconvenience and time and trouble caused; and
• pay him £150 in recognition of this.

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Final decision

26. I uphold Mr B’s complaint. The Council was at fault in repeatedly failing to collect his household waste causing him a significant injustice.
27. I have completed my investigation on the basis that the Council has agreed to implement the recommended remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman