Summary: The Ombudsman found fault by the Council on Mrs D’s complaint about its waste contractor repeatedly failing to return her bins as required by its assisted collections scheme. There were repeated failures to return the bin to its proper place. There was a failure to keep records of monitoring by the Council and its contractor. The agreed action remedies the injustice caused. There was no fault on her complaint about missed bin collections.

The complaint

1. Mrs D, who needs assisted bin collections because of a disability, complains about:
1. the Council’s waste contractor repeatedly failing to return her bins to her collection point after emptying;
2. the Council repeatedly failing to ensure the contractor returns her bins properly; and
3. the Council failing to act to ensure her bin is not missed from collections.
2. As a result, this causes her a great deal of distress, upset, anxiety, and inconvenience, because she is unable to move the bins herself.

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What I have investigated

3. I have not investigated any complaint Mrs D may have against the Council before February 2020. The paragraph towards the end of this statement explains why.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 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)
6. 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

7. I considered all the information Mrs D sent, the notes I made of our telephone conversation, and the Council’s response to my enquiries, a copy of which I sent her. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Mrs D and the Council. I considered their responses.

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What I found

8. Mrs D has lived in her home for more than 20 years. She has various health problems which means she cannot physically put the bin kerbside for collection or bring the bin back to her house once emptied by the Council’s contractors.
9. The contractors empty her bins every Monday which are rotated as she has several including a bin for normal waste, recycling, and food waste for example. For the last 10 years, she had help with her bins on collection day. This is because she made the Council aware of her need and it agreed to provide her with an ‘assisted collection’. This means one of the contractor’s operators collects, empties, and returns her bin to where it is stored. This help is for those with an illness or disability preventing them from moving the bin, with no other member of the household who can do it for them.
10. The bins are kept outside of her rear door which is where they are collected and returned. Mrs D complains the contractors regularly fail to return the bins after emptying. She also complains about the Council’s failure to ensure the contractors do this. She is unable to return bins to the correct place herself. This can mean a bin blocks the pavement, blocks her car on the drive, and means she stores waste inside her house until it is moved. A neighbour once helped put her bin out but, not since as this caused confusion with the contractor. Mrs D recently claims in the previous 4 weeks, for example, the bins were not properly returned on 3 occasions.
11. In response to my enquiries, the Council explained Mrs D had difficulty finding a section on its website allowing her to report a missed bin placement, so reported missed bin collections instead. It asked her to correctly report these online, so its contractor can act. This allows it to send someone in a car to deal with it rather than a whole crew in a waste collection vehicle. From 2020 to date, the Council explained there were reports of 7 bin placement problems.
12. The Council also explained there are several reasons for the bin placement problem. One was confusion caused by her neighbour taking the bins kerbside for collection. The contractor’s crew emptied and left the bin where they found it. Mrs D says a neighbour only helped once, which was to return her bin, not take it out.
13. Another reason was the crew’s working practice. Some of the crew went ahead of the vehicle, pulling the bins from her back door and putting them kerbside. When emptied, they were left there by the rest of the crew who assumed this was where they were found. The contractor has since asked crews not to do this in future.
14. The Council also explained that following her complaint, it agreed to do monitoring from November 2020 until satisfied the bins were returned properly each collection day. I have not seen evidence of this monitoring. The contractor also agreed to do ad hoc checks. These were not recorded.
15. The Council did not carry out monitoring of the contractor’s performance as it had not hit the contractor’s threshold of 3 missed collections within a 6-week period. Some of these were wrongly recorded as missed collections when they were about bin placement.
16. The Council accepts problems with bin placement continue occasionally even after monitoring and ad hoc checks. The contractor’s crews were spoken to, and reminders sent. No evidence of this was provided.
17. The Council confirmed the electronic system in the crew’s vehicles shows her address as assisted collection. The contractor says problems continue because of social distancing measures and Covid-19 restrictions causing staff reductions. Poor weather, and a national driver shortage, meant it used agency and skeleton crews which have contributed to the problem. There is no current monitoring because of the infrequency of the problem.
18. The Council recently sent Mrs D assisted collection stickers for her bins which should prompt crews to return bins.
19. The evidence shows Mrs D made the following reports:

2020

• March: 3 reports of non-collection of her landfill bin and 1 of her recycling bin. In addition, she also complained bins were rarely returned;
• November: 1 report of misplaced bins. She claims an officer told her she was not on the assisted collection list. The contractor confirmed the crew misplaced the bin;
• December: 1 report of misplaced bin but, she managed to call the crew before they left about it. She says the crew told her the driver had not told them about the assisted collection;

2021

• February: 1 report of a misplaced bin. Two days later she reported the bin was still not in its proper place;
• March: 1 report of a misplaced bin;
• April: 1 report of a misplaced bin;
• May: 1 report of a misplaced bin which took at least 2 days to return. The contractor told the Council this was because of a skeleton crew doing the round; and
• June: 1 report of a misplaced bin. An officer told Mrs D about assisted collection stickers for her bins which might help.

20. The Council’s website has a section about assisted bin collections where people can apply through an online account. It states if the collection is missed, or there is any other problem with it, reports can be made through an individual’s online account, a given phone number, or an online form.

Complaint a): failing to return bins

Analysis

21. In 2020, apart from 2 reports towards the end of the year, there is no evidence of a consistent failure to return her bins that year. I found no fault on this complaint.
22. In the first half of 2021, Mrs D made at least 1 report a month of a misplaced bin. I found fault on this complaint because despite alerting the Council and contractor to the problem, the problem continued over a 5-month period.
23. I am satisfied the fault caused her an injustice (stress, anxiety, inconvenience, and frustration).

Complaint b): failing to ensure contractor does assisted collection

Analysis

24. The evidence shows the Council acted on Mrs D’s reports. I say this because there are emails from the Council to the contractor each time she reported misplaced bins.
25. There is an email from the contractor confirming it asked crews to change their practice of walking ahead of the vehicle and bringing bins kerbside to avoid any further repetition of this problem. This shows the contractor responding to the Council’s contact about it.
26. There is no evidence of the ad hoc monitoring carried out by the contractor or the Council which I consider amounts to fault. I consider this caused Mrs D an injustice (uncertainty about whether it was done at all and if it could have altered the eventual outcome of her problem if it had).

Complaint c): failing to ensure bins are collected

Analysis

27. I found no fault on this complaint. Apart from initial reports in early 2020, most of Mrs D’s reports were about bin placement, not missed collections.

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Agreed action

28. I considered our guidance on remedies.
29. The Council agreed to carry out the following within 4 weeks of the final decision on this complaint:
1. Send Mrs D a written apology for: the contractor’s failure to ensure bins were returned to her property as required by an assisted collection; the Council and contractor’s failure to keep records showing monitoring was done;
2. Pay £100 to Mrs D for the injustice these failures caused her;
3. If she is still experiencing problems, and reporting misplaced bins rather then missed collections, it will send detailed, easy to follow instructions to her about how to properly report it;
4. Consider sending assisted collection stickers for bins to all those who qualify for such a collection; and
5. Both the contractor and the Council to remind staff of the need to keep a record of monitoring done.

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Final decision

30. The Ombudsman made the following findings on Mrs D’s complaint against the Council:

• Complaint a): fault causing injustice;
• Complaint b): fault causing injustice; and
• Complaint c): no fault.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

31. I did not investigate any complaint Mrs D may have about the Council’s actions taking place before February 2020. This is because we usually 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.
32. As Mrs D complained to us in February 2021, this means we can investigate the Council’s actions from February 2020. I have seen no good reason why we should investigate before this date.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman