Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s bin service. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now. Even if the complaint had not been late, there is not enough evidence of a significant personal injustice caused to Mr X by the matter to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X lives in a building with communal bins, which are stored in a cupboard near the entrance to his property. He complains the Council’s bin staff fail to return the bins to the cupboard.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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)
4. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. We expect people to bring their complaint to us within 12 months of their becoming aware of the problem about which they want to complain. Mr X complained to the Council about the bins in December 2019. The Council replied at stage one of its internal complaints process in January 2020. Its letter invited Mr X to contact officers again if he was dissatisfied with the response. Mr X did not proceed with the complaint. He says he believes he complained again in August 2020, but the Council has no record of any further complaint on the matter. Mr X brought his complaint to us in October 2021, so this means the complaint is late, even if there was an August 2020 complaint.
7. The Council advised Mr X in January 2020 how he could pursue the issue and complete the complaint process. Mr X could then have brought the matter to us in time. There are no good reasons for us to investigate this late complaint now.
8. Even if the complaint had been in time, there is insufficient evidence of the matter causing a significant personal injustice to Mr X to warrant an investigation. We recognise bin crews leaving bins across Mrs X’s access causes frustration and inconvenience from having to move them out of the way and back to the storage area. But it is not serious enough to justify the use of public money to investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to investigate it now; and
• there is not enough evidence the matters complained of caused Mr X a significant personal injustice which would warrant us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman