Summary: Mr X complained that although he should receive assisted collections, the Council routinely failed to collect his household waste and recycling when collecting his neighbours’ waste. The repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections 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 that although he should receive assisted collections, the Council routinely failed to collect his household waste and recycling when collecting his neighbours’ waste. Mr X is unable to move the bins or dispose of the uncollected waste and recycling himself. He complains the Council failed to make any recycling collections for three months in the autumn of 2020 and he had to rely on a family member to dispose of the accumulated waste for him.

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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’. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and 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; and
• Mr X 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

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. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
8. 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

9. Mr X has received assisted collections for many years. He complains about problems with his recycling collections since around June 2020. He states he reported the missed collections and was told he could only make a complaint when there had been three missed collections.
10. Mr X complains the Council did not collect his recycling for around three months in the autumn of 2020. This led to an accumulation of recycling which his niece had to collect and take to the tip for him. Mr X is concerned that the collection crews only missed his recycling while his neighbours still received regular collections. He believes this may be because he should receive assisted collections.
11. The Council’s records show Mr X has reported six missed recycling collections and two missed household waste collections since September 2020. There is no record of Mr X reporting missed collections in June 2020.
12. The reports are all 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.
13. For example, Mr X reported missed recycling collections on 6 and 20 November 2020 and the Council closed these reports on 24 November and 17 December 2020, respectively. It is unclear why, if the Council made a collection on 24 November 2020, it did not close both reports that day.
14. As the report of 20 November 2020 was not closed until 17 December 2020, this suggests the scheduled for 4 December 2020 was also missed. If the Council had made this collection, it could have closed the report that day.
15. Mr X also reported a missed recycling collection on 18 December 2020, which would have been unnecessary if the Council had collected the missed recycling on 17 December 2020.
16. There are similar inconsistencies in the records for Mr X’s missed household waste collections. Mr X reported a missed household waste collection on 6 April 2021, which the Council closed on 29 April 2021. As household waste collections are weekly, this suggested the Council also missed the collections scheduled for 9, 16 and 23 April 2021. If the Council had made any of these collections it could have closed the report sooner.
17. 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.
18. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also made a formal complaint. On 14 December 2020 Mr X complained the Council had missed his cardboard and recycling collections since 6 November 2020. The complaint notes Mr X had called several times to report the problem, but the calls were not recorded on the Council’s system.
19. The Council apologised for the missed collections and confirmed the manager would speak to the crew and arrange a collection as soon as possible. As Mr X was not satisfied by the response he asked the Council to review his complaint. He also contacted the Ombudsman. The Council agreed to monitor Mr X’s next six recycling collections. Mr X confirmed this improved the service, but it is still not perfect.
20. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Mr X has assisted collection status.
21. The Council has also confirmed that the recycling collections from Mr X’s street were not on a fixed round and were made by support crews. It acknowledges that there can be problems with missed assisted collections on non-fixed rounds due to a lack of consistency with crew membership. The Council has confirmed Mr X’s street is now on a fixed recycling round.
22. The Council’s records of the monitoring from March to May 2021 show it made all collections as scheduled. It considers this monitoring together with the reduced number of reported missed collections indicates the issue is now resolved.

Analysis

23. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling. These failings in the service amount to fault.
24. The Council states Mr X reported a total of six missed recycling and two missed household waste collections, since September 2020 but I consider it likely the Council missed more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Mr X’s complaints refer to consecutive missed collections and his calls not being recorded. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable indicator of the extent of the problem.
25. I recognise there will be an element of unfamiliarity where support crews to make collections from non-routed streets. But Mr X’s assisted collections would have been recorded on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and in the crew packs. The support crews should therefore have been aware of this and collected Mr X’s recycling.
26. The service appears to have improved since Mr X’s street was added to a collection route and the Council’s monitoring of his collections.
27. 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 waste and recycling left at his property. He was unable to dispose of this himself and had to rely on a family member to take the accumulated waste to the tip. 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.

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Agreed action

28. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £100 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections has caused.
29. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

30. The Council’s the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman