Summary: Mrs X, who is visually impaired and unsteady on her feet, complained that the Council has failed repeatedly, to assist, as agreed, with her bin collections. She says this causes her an injustice because she is unable to collect her bins by herself and has had falls in the past when she has tried. The Council has accepted fault and said it is willing to consider a remedy. We have suggested it remedy the fault with a payment to acknowledge distress and a period of monitoring. We have also recommended it look at how it has addressed other service-users complaints about their assisted bin collections.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that:

• Despite having complained about the issue in the past – and being told it would be addressed – the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her bins as agreed.
• This has caused her an injustice as she requires help with her bin collections.

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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. I spoke with Mrs X and reviewed the case file.
5. I made enquiries with the Council.
6. Mrs 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

Background

7. Mrs X is sight-impaired and is unsteady on her feet. Because of these difficulties she is entitled to assistance from the Council for bin collections. This means that the Council has agreed that, rather than Mrs X having to present her bins at the kerbside, its Waste Crew will collect her waste containers from an agreed location at her property.
8. However, Mrs X says that, as far back as 2017, the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her bins. She has complained about it to the Council in the past.
9. On 20 June 2017, the Council apologised. It said that it had spoken to the crew members and reminded them of their responsibilities when collecting and returning her bins.
10. In January 2021, Mrs X reported problems again. The officer she spoke to said she could take her complaint to the Ombudsman as she noted she had several missed collections and had previously taken her complaint as far as stage two of the complaints process.
11. In February 2021, another officer noted that Mrs X had said that having to repeatedly complain was “really getting her down”. The officer asked the Waste Crew to ensure that her bins were collected.
12. The response from the Waste Crew was to visit again to collect the latest missed bin collection. The Council was also told that there were already prompts to alert drivers to collect bins at assisted collections. He said the prompts would be updated.
13. The Council says its Waste Services team use technology in its waste vehicles to remind and prompt crews about collections where needed. It says crews should then update the system with details of any difficulties experienced or confirmation that waste has been collected.
14. In April 2021, the Council completed a stage two review of Mrs X’s complaint. It apologised again for its failure to collect her bins.
15. It said that, to address the issues she had raised, it had done the following:

• Issued crews with crew reminder forms,
• ensured the new in-cab technology had the correct details for Mrs X’s property and added prompts for the crew to remind them that she required assisted collections.

16. It said it understood the stress and inconvenience caused by the failure to make collections. It assured her that a “great deal of work is currently being undertaken to review how accurate round information is cascaded to our crews and to ensure that we are getting it right every time.”
17. It said it would continue to monitor the situation. Mrs X says the Council continued to miss some collections.
18. In response to our enquiries, the Council said that, although the prompt has been added to its technology, there is no evidence the tool has actually been used by crews. It said this is probably why there have been missed collections.
19. The Council says it apologizes for failing to identify that problems were arising and continuing because crews were not using the technology to assist with ensuring collections took place.

Analysis

20. The Council accepts it has failed to ensure the technology it had adopted, was actually being used. It had told Mrs X that it would monitor the situation but accepts that it should have This has caused Mrs X an injustice. She found it frustrating to have to complain repeatedly about an issue she was assured would be resolved.
21. The fact that the Council’s waste team was not using the equipment provided to ensure assisted collections were taking place suggests others may have been affected. I have made a recommendation to address this.
22. I have not recommended that the Council should review its systems set up to monitor collections. It has already said that, in future, the practice of the complaints team will be updated to ensure that, rather than accepting confirmation that reminders have been added to the technology as evidence the agreed monitoring is taking place, it will require evidence of the actions taken.

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Agreed action

23. Within a month of our final decision, the Council should:

• Pay Mrs X the sum of £200 to acknowledge its repeated failure to collect her bins and its failure to effectively monitor her bin collection as promised.
• Effectively monitor Mrs X’s assisted collections for a period of three months. The Council should produce a report setting out its monitoring results to both the Ombudsman and Mrs X.

24. Within six months of our final decision, the Council should contact other residents who use the Council’s assisted bin collection service and have complained about missed collections since 1 April 2021. In cases where complaints have continued, the Council should:
1. review whether monitoring has failed in their cases as well, and;
2. consider what steps it should take to acknowledge any distress caused.
3. Those residents should be told they can take their case to the Ombudsman if they are unhappy with the Council’s approach.
25. The Council should provide evidence to the Ombudsman that it has acted in the way described above.

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Final decision

26. I have found the Council at fault and made recommendations to remedy the injustice which the Council has accepted. I have now completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman