Summary: Although the Council experienced a significant number of challenges to its refuse collection service over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains at fault for failing to empty Mrs B’s bins on a number of occasions over a two-year period. This meant she had to go to the time and trouble of repeatedly reporting missed collections, which caused her an injustice. The Council has now fixed Mrs B’s collection problems; however, it has also agreed to apologise and provide a payment of £100 to recognise her injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs B, complains that she has had problems with her garden waste collections since June 2020.
2. Mrs B complained to the Council in February 2021 and it monitored her collections for a short period, which, she says, improved things – until April 2021, when the monitoring stopped and she says the collection issues started again.
3. Mrs B says there were regular problems until around June 2021, following which the missed collections became less regular and were often explained by a supervisor. However, she says still does experience some unexplained missed collections.
4. Although the company which collects Mrs B’s bins is a private contractor, it does so on behalf of the Council. As a result, the body I am ultimately investigating is the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 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)
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

8. I considered information from Mrs B and the Council. Both 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

The Ombudsman’s 2020 report into the Council’s waste collections

9. We issued a report in March 2020 which found fault in six complaints about the Council’s waste collection service. Mrs B was one of the complainants affected. We made multiple recommendations, including changes to the missed collection monitoring process and democratic oversight of the service improvements already put in place by the Council.

What happened

10. After we issued our report, Mrs B’s bin collections were fine until June 2020. From then on and for the rest of the year, however, the Council repeatedly failed to collect her garden waste until she (or one of her neighbours) reported a missed collection.
11. Mrs B complained to the Council in February 2021, which apologised and said it would send a supervisor to monitor her garden waste collections. When this did not improve matters, she complained again, in March. This time, the Council said it had made changes to its collection rounds and her property had been missed off. Again, it said its supervisor would monitor her collections.
12. The following month, Mrs B approached the Ombudsman, saying her garden waste collections had still not improved, despite the Council’s complaint responses and its supervisor monitoring.
13. Mrs B’s collections improved after this point, although the Council still failed to collect her garden waste on separate occasions in April and May 2021, and in January and March 2022. Although the Council did not collect her bins on other occasions, it notified her in advance.

The Council’s position

14. The Council says the problems experienced by Mrs B in the past two years have been caused by prolonged pandemic-related difficulties: its green bin collections were suspended in March and April 2020 and only resumed in full in March 2021, and there was a significant impact on staffing across the waste collection service throughout the pandemic.
15. The Council says this led to collection crews being diverted to unfamiliar routes at short notice, often with new or agency staff. It says it made every effort to ensure these crews were given the right information in advance, but this was done at short notice and under significant pressure. It says Mrs B’s property is in a place which may not be immediately obvious to new crew members, who may have thought it was on a collection round for a neighbouring street.
16. The Council says it struggled to ‘embed’ the service improvements it made around the time of the Ombudsman’s report in 2020 because the pandemic hit its services almost immediately afterwards. However, it says it has now managed to do this, which is proved by the fact that Mrs B has experienced no collection problems for four months.
17. The Council says it is currently engaged in a formal contract review with its refuse collection provider. It says the experience of its customers will form a part of that review.

My findings

18. There is no doubt that, for significant periods of time over the past two years, the Council has faced unprecedented challenges to its bin collection services. I accept the Council’s description of those challenges and acknowledge the issues it experienced.
19. However, the COVID-19 pandemic – while a substantial mitigating factor – did not completely absolve the Council of its duties.
20. The Council has accepted that Mrs B experienced problems with her garden waste collections, partly because of staffing and partly because of an administrative error which meant her property was missed off a collection round. She has also had some (much more infrequent) problems since approaching the Ombudsman, the most recent of which were missed collections in January and March this year.
21. This was fault by the Council. Although it clearly experienced staffing difficulties, the fact remains that Mrs B, through no fault of her own, found she repeatedly had to go to the time and trouble of getting the Council to come back and empty her bins. This caused her an injustice. From her description of events, I also accept she was caused a great deal of frustration from having to do this on several occasions over a two-year period.
22. In light of the unique challenges presented to the Council over the past two years, plus the fact that Mrs B’s collection issues are now largely resolved, I have decided that a further public report is not necessary. However, the Council should still take action to remedy her injustice.

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Agreed actions

23. The Council has agreed to write to Mrs B and apologise for its repeated bin collection failures over the past two years.
24. The Council has also agreed to make a payment of £100 to recognise Mrs B’s injustice.
25. The Council has agreed to complete these actions within six weeks of the date of this decision.

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Final decision

26. The Council was at fault for failing to collect Mrs B’s bins on a number of occasions over a two-year period. The agreed actions remedy her injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman