Summary: Mr B complained the Council’s waste management contractor repeatedly failed to collect, empty, and return his bins. This caused Mr B inconvenience and frustration. The Council was at fault because its waste management contractor failed to provide a reliable waste collection service. The Council has agreed to take action to remedy this injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr B complained the Council’s waste contractors repeatedly failed to collect, empty, and return his bins. This caused Mr B inconvenience and frustration.

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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. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered:
• Mr B’s complaint and the information he provided;
• documents supplied by the Council;
• relevant legislation and guidelines; and
• the Council’s policies and procedures.
6. Mr B and the Council commented on a draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Legislation

7. 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.
8. The Council's practice is to make a weekly food waste collection and fortnightly recycling and household waste collections.
9. The Council also offers a fortnightly garden waste collection service. Residents pay an annual subscription fee to use this service.
10. The Council will arrange for missed collections to be rearranged if a resident reports this within two days of the scheduled collection.
11. If the contractor fails to collect a bin, fully empty it, or return it, the Council puts the address on a hot spot list; the address is categorised as an ‘assured’ property. This highlights to the contractor that there has been repeated service failure at the address. When an address is on this list, the waste management contractor should monitor the collections more closely to resolved the service issue. Properties stay on the list for four weeks.
12. The Council has a two-stage complaint procedure:
• Stage 1: A senior officer from the service will oversee the complaint investigation. The Council will provide a written response to the complaint within 20 working days.
• Stage 2: A deputy monitoring officer will decide whether to consider the complaint at stage 2 of the process. If the Council does not accept the complaint, it will tell the complainant within five working days. If the Council accepts the complaint, the deputy monitoring officer will undertake the complaint investigation. The Council will provide a written response within 20 working days.

What happened

13. This chronology includes key events in this case and does not cover everything that happened.
14. Between September 2019 and July 2020, the Council’s waste management contractor failed to collect Mr B’s bins on five occasions and did not fully empty them on a further four occasions. The contractor said Mr B’s bins were not always visible.
15. Mr B made a formal complaint in July 2020. The Council responded in August 2020. It apologised for the delay in responding to his complaint. It upheld his complaint and said it had raised the matter with its waste management contractor. The Council put Mr B on its hot spot list.
16. In October 2020, the waste management contractor failed to return Mr B’s bins to their collection point twice. He made another formal complaint to the Council.
17. The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint in December 2020. It apologised for its delayed response. It also apologised for the substandard waste collection service he had received, and because service requests were closed without being resolved. The Council told Mr B it raised these matters with its contractor and had put him on the hot spot list. The Council upheld his complaint.
18. Mr B asked the Council to consider his complaint at stage two of its complaint procedure. He explained the Council had apologised and put him on the hot spot list on multiple occasions, but the problem kept reoccurring. He asked the Council to explain what a hot spot list was.
19. The Council said his complaint did not meet the criteria for stage two of its complaint procedure because it upheld his complaint at stage one. It reminded him that it had apologised and put him on the hot spot list. It signposted him to the Ombudsman.
20. Mr B told the Council it had put him on the hot spot list five times, but this had not solved the problem. He asked the Council to explain what the hot spot list was. He also asked for the Council’s criteria for a stage two complaint.
21. The Council sent Mr B an extract from its complaint procedure. This said the Council reserved the right to refuse a complaint if there was another process available to deal with the issue.
22. The Council responded to Mr B’s queries about the hot spot list. It explained the waste management company was a new contractor. It told him if the contractor failed to collect a bin, fully empty it, or return it, the address was put on a hot spot list. It explained if an address was on the hot spot list, the waste management contractor had to record when it collected the bins, and collections were supervised by the Council. It said properties stayed on the hot spot list for four weeks. It advised that it was considering introducing fines for contractor for poor service.
23. Mr B told the Council being on a hot spot list had not resolved the matter as the contractor had returned the wrong bin to his property the previous week.
24. In February 2021, the contractor did not return Mr B’s bins to their collection point on two occasions. Mr B reported this, and the Council apologised.
25. The Council contacted its waste management contractor. It told the contractor it had not returned Mr B’s bins. It advised Mr B had been on the hot spot list for a long time, but after a few weeks of coming off the list, he would experience more problems. It asked the contractor to supervise the return of Mr B’s bins and to add him to the hot spot list. The contractor did not respond.
26. Mr B contacted the Council again in April 2021. He advised the waste management contractor had failed to collect his bins three weeks in a row. He also said the company had failed to return his bin after collection.
27. The Council followed this up with its waste management contractor. The Council told the contractor it had not responded to the email it sent in February 2021 and this was not good enough. The Council asked the contractor to update it on Mr B’s case by the end of the day.
28. Mr B reported the contractor did not empty his bins twice and did not return them once in July 2021.
29. In response to my draft decision, the Council showed how it records service failures in the key performance indicators for the contractor. I am satisfied the key performance indicators captured the service failures for Mr B’s property.

Analysis

30. It is clear from the Council’s records that its waste management contractor repeatedly failed to collect, empty, and return Mr B’s bins over a sustained period. These failings in the service amount to fault.
31. Mr B made two formal complaints. The Council failed to respond to either of these within its policy’s timescales. These delays in the Council’s complaint responses were fault.
32. The Council decided not to consider Mr B’s second complaint at stage 2 of its complaint procedure. This was because it had upheld his complaint, apologised, and put him on the hot spot list. However, each time the problem appeared to be resolved and the Council took Mr B off the hot spot list, problems reoccurred. The Council should have investigated the reason for this, and not doing so was fault.
33. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this caused Mr B an injustice. Mr B experienced frustration and disappointment, both with his waste collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr B was put to unnecessary time and trouble trying to resolve this matter.

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Agreed action

34. Within one month of the final decision, the Council will:
• Apologise to Mr B.
• Pay Mr B £150 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to empty and return his bins over a sustained period caused.
• Remind staff involved in the Council’s complaints procedure of the importance of meeting the timescales set out in the complaints policy.
35. The Council should provide the Ombudsman with evidence these actions have been completed.

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Final decision

36. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr B’s complaint. Mr B was caused an injustice by the actions of the Council. The Council has agreed to take action to remedy that injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman