Summary: Mr X complains the Council repeatedly missed his garden waste collections. There is fault by the Council and it has agreed to refund the collection fee to Mr X, make a payment for time and trouble and ensure any future missed collections are investigated properly and resolved in a timely manner.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect his garden waste between February 2021 and November 2021.

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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 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

4. I considered Mr X’s complaint and the information he provided.
5. I considered the limited information the Council provided in response to my enquiries.
6. Mr X and the Council were given the opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision. I considered the comments I received from the Council. I did not receive any comments from Mr X.

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What I found

7. The Council provides a garden waste collection service for which a resident pays an annual fee of £40 per green bin. Once the Council receives an application and the fee, it provides the resident with a sticker for their green bin. This sticker must be stuck to the body of the bin at the rear, below the handle. The sticker is unique to each resident and it matches the Council’s records. The Council says it will only empty green bins that display the sticker.
8. The Council says the green bins are collected once every two weeks apart from a two week break over the Christmas and New Year period.

What happened

9. Mr X subscribed to the Council’s garden waste collection service from February 2021 to January 2022. On several occasions Mr X reported his green bin collection had been missed on the scheduled day. The Council would then arrange collection at a later date.
10. In September 2021, Mr X submitted a formal complaint to the Council about the continued missed collections. He explained the green bin is always placed next to his neighbour’s bins, it displays the correct permit and only contains permissible waste yet his neighbour’s bins are always emptied but not his. Mr X said this had happened on every scheduled collection day since February 2021.
11. The Council apologised to Mr X. It said it had asked the crew to be mindful of Mr X’s address and report any problems to a manager. The Council said Mr X’s address was on the collection list and as such the bin should be collected and emptied on the scheduled day by the crews.
12. Mr X’s green bin was missed again. He requested his complaint be escalated to stage 2 of the council’s complaint procedure.
13. A senior manager at the Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint. The Council apologised for the inconvenience Mr X was experiencing. It said it had instructed crews to service all green bins and monitor the collections to avoid any additional service failures. It is unclear what monitoring the Council undertook and for how long as I have not received any supporting evidence from it, despite my requests.
14. Mr X’s garden waste continued to be missed by the Council and so he brought his complaint to the Ombudsman.

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Analysis

15. The Council says Mr X’s green bin was not collected on five occasions but Mr X reports the Council has failed to collect his green bin as scheduled, on every occasion since February 2021.
16. The Council has failed to provide me with all the information I requested in my enquiries. However, there is enough evidence to enable me to make a finding that the Council has provided a poor level of service to Mr X. After replying to Mr X’s complaint the collections continued to be missed. It is likely this will have caused a great deal of frustration to Mr X.
17. Mr X paid for a service the Council said it would provide fortnightly between February 2021 to January 2022. It failed to do this. This is fault.
18. The repeated failures by the Council caused frustration and it meant Mr X incurred unnecessary time and trouble reporting the missed collections and pursuing this complaint.

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Agreed action

19. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault, the Council has agreed to refund the fee of £40 to Mr X for the period of February 2021 to January 2022. It has also agreed to pay Mr X £100 for the time and trouble he spent reporting the missed collections and pursuing this complaint.
20. The sum of £140 should be paid to Mr X within four weeks of this final decision.
21. Should Mr X report any further missed green bin collections, the Council has agreed to properly investigate the matter to find the problem and take steps in a timely manner to resolve the issue to prevent further missed collections.

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Final decision

22. There is fault by the Council, and it has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice caused. Therefore, I have completed my investigation and closed this complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman