Summary: Mrs X complained that although she should receive an assisted collection, the Council repeatedly failed to collect her garden waste when it collected her neighbours’. The Council’s repeated failure to collected Mrs X’s garden waste on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X complained that although she should receive an assisted collection, the Council repeatedly failed to collect her garden waste when it collected her neighbours’.

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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 documents provided by Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mrs X; and
• 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

Garden waste collections

5. The Council runs a fortnightly garden waste collection service for 40 weeks between March and December. The Council charges a fee for this service and it is only available to customers who have subscribed for the service in advance. The terms and conditions for this service state the Council will consider a refund where it has failed to rectify a reported missed collection of garden waste on three consecutive cycles.
6. When a missed collection is reported to the Council, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the collection is complete, the Council closes the report.
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.

What happened here

8. Mrs X employed a gardener to look after her garden over the summer months. She arranged his visits based on the scheduled garden waste collections so that the gardener could fill the bin with garden waste which would then be collected before he returned. Mrs X complains that when the Council missed a collection the bin was still full when the gardener visited, and they could not dispose of the latest garden waste. As she is unable to put the garden waste in the bin herself, she would have to pay the gardener to return once the Council had cleared the missed collection to fill the bin with the accumulated garden waste.
9. According to the Council’s records Mrs X reported four missed garden waste collections on between July and September 2021. The reports are all closed and suggest that generally the Council returned to collect the missed waste before the next scheduled collection, and generally within a few days.
10. Mrs X made a formal complaint about the missed collection in July 2021. As the Council had collected her neighbours’ garden waste but left hers, she complained the collection crew had discriminated against her due to her disability. She asked the Council to refund the fee for the garden waste service and ensure her waste was collected on the scheduled days.
11. The Council apologised for the missed collection and confirmed she was registered for assisted collections. The assisted collection service applied to all collections and the Council confirmed it would remind the crew to ensure her property was not missed. As a further collection was missed, Mrs X asked the Council to consider her complaint at the next stage of its complaint process.
12. The Council again apologised for the missed collection and made arrangements for the waste to be cleared. It asked Mrs X to leave the waste at the front of her property, so it was visible to the collection crew. The Council stated it had made the service manager aware of the problem with the assisted collection service and that the Council was not discriminating against Mrs X’s property. In addition, the Council explained that Mrs X did not meet the conditions for a refund.
13. As Mrs X remains unhappy with the service she received and is concerned that it will continue when the garden waste service begins again in March 2022, she has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. Mrs X states there are no problems with assisted collections for her household waste and recycling, which are made as scheduled. She would like the Council to explain why only her garden waste was missed while her neighbours’ was routinely collected.
14. The Council is unable to provide any specific reasons for Mrs X’s missed garden waste collections. It states that during 2021 Waste Management experienced some localised disruption to all collection services due to operational issues. These included:
• Ongoing challenges and issues connected to managing COVID-19;
• Seasonal sickness increasing across the work force; and
• Crews covering dropped work where possible.
15. The Council states it is trying to bring in more drivers to help out but there is a national shortage of HGV drivers.

Analysis

16. It is clear from the Council’s records that that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mrs X’s garden waste. These failings in the assisted collection service amount to fault.
17. The Council has not offered an explanation of the missed collections. It has confirmed Mrs X is registered for assisted collections and that this service applies to all of her collections. Details of assisted collections must be available to the collection crews as the household waste and recycling crews are able to make these collections without problem. It is therefore unclear why Miss X’s garden waste bins were routinely missed when the rest of the street were collected.
18. I recognise that as the Council did not miss three consecutive collections Mrs X did not meet the threshold for a refund of the fee for the service. However, it is clear that the missed collections did cause Mrs X an injustice. Mrs X has had to arrange for her gardener to return once the Council had cleared the missed collection to fill the bin with the accumulated garden waste. She has experienced frustration and concerns of disability discrimination as despite her complaints and reporting of problems there were further missed collections. Mrs X has also been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter. In the circumstances I consider the Council should provide Mrs X with a free garden waste service for 2022.

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Agreed action

19. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X for the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular garden waste collections has caused and to waive the fee for the garden waste service in 2022.
20. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

21. The Council’s repeated failure to collected Mrs X’s garden waste on the scheduled days amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman