Summary: Mrs X complained the Council repeatedly missed her assisted refuse collections. The Council failed to properly deliver this agreed service or resolve the issues when Mrs X reported this several times over a prolonged period. This caused Mrs X avoidable distress, time, and trouble, for which the Council agreed to apologise and pay a financial remedy. It will also ensure it collects Mrs X’s bins as agreed and review its relevant policies and procedures.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council repeatedly missed her assisted refuse collections and did not resolve the issues even after it upheld her complaint in October 2021. She said the uncollected refuse made her feel ill, and it took significant time and trouble for her to repeatedly report the issues. This caused her frustration, distress and upset. Mrs X wanted someone with authority at the Council to resolve the issues and ensure the Council collected her bin regularly from the agreed collection point.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated what happened from October 2019 onwards. The final section of this statement contains my reason for not investigating events before this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. 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)
5. 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

6. I considered:
• information provided by Mrs X and discussed the complaint with her;
• documentation and comments from the Council about Mrs X’s assisted refuse collection;
• relevant law and guidance;
• the Ombudsman’s August 2017 Focus Report, ‘Lifting the lid on bin complaints: learning to improve waste and recycling services’; and
• the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies.
7. 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

Refuse and recycling

8. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area, free of charge. The collections do not have to be weekly. Many councils also collect garden waste and bulky items but may charge for these extra services.
9. Councils provide an assisted collection service for people who cannot move their bin(s) to the usual collection point due to poor health, mobility issues, or disability. Where a council has approved an application for assisted collection, it should collect the bin(s) from a place agreed with the applicant and return them to the same point.

The Council’s policy

10. The Council’s website says it aims to make regular collections, on the day it says it will, and asks people to report missed bins within 48 hours of their collection day. The Council allows people to also use their garden waste bin for food waste. It collects food and garden waste bins once every fortnight, free of charge.

Ombudsman guidance

11. The Ombudsman set out good practice for councils on handling refuse and recycling complaints in our 2017 Focus Report, ‘Lifting the lid on bin complaints: learning to improve waste and recycling services’. This said councils should:
• ensure a reliable and effective service, particularly when refuse collections are reduced to fortnightly or less;
• ensure any monitoring of service issues is meaningful and not just a tick-box exercise;
• make sure people who have an assisted collection service are not left to struggle when things go wrong;
• provide considered responses when handling complaints – rather than stock responses; and
• learn from complaints and implement those learning points.

What happened

12. Mrs X lives in an independent living facility, where household waste and recycling are communal. Mrs X is the only resident of the facility with their own separate garden and so has a separate garden waste bin.
13. Mrs X said the Council agreed to provide her with an assisted collection for her garden waste bin in September 2016, and she began reporting issues with missed collections straight away. The Council changed its policy in late 2017 and asked people to also dispose of food waste in their garden waste bins. Mrs X said this made the issues worse because the rotting food caused unsanitary conditions. She also said the issues were at their worst in the summers of 2020 and 2021, due to:
• hot weather; and
• her family being unable to visit to move her bin for her to the side of the road, which had previously meant the Council had sometimes collected it.
14. The Council said its records showed it approved an assisted collection for Mrs X in October 2019. It said to set this up it would have:
• told the refuse worker team supervisor about Mrs X’s new assisted collection, who would have alerted relevant refuse workers to this; and
• updated its system notes displayed within refuse vehicles, which would have been viewable by refuse workers from early November 2019 onwards.
15. Mrs X said she reported many missed collections to the Council, online and by phone. The Council said its records showed Mrs X:
• reported thirteen missed collections between January and August 2021; and
• put in complaints about missed collections in September 2020, June 2021, and September 2021.
16. In its responses to Mrs X’s complaints, the Council said it would monitor and work to resolve the issues. Mrs X asked to escalate her third complaint to Stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure. The Council issued a Stage 2 response in October 2021, and a month later Mrs X came to the Ombudsman.
17. In response to our enquiries, the Council said its refuse workers did not record any instances where they tried to collect Mrs X’s bin but were unsuccessful with valid reason. The Council said the communal garden at Mrs X’s independent living facility was maintained by the facility, so not covered by the Council's domestic garden waste service. It therefore said it repeatedly missed Mrs X’s collection because its refuse workers did not usually attend properties of this type. The Council also proposed actions it could take to remedy any injustice caused to Mrs X. It said it could:
• send a service manager to visit Mrs X’s home to re-assess the arrangements for her assisted collection and identify an agreed location for the bin collection and return;
• re-inform its refuse workers of the assisted collection; and
• carry out monitoring by a supervisor to ensure collection.

My findings

The period I have investigated

18. Ms X brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in November 2021. As described at paragraphs 13, 14, and 15, Mrs X and the Council provided different accounts about when these issues began. The first complaint recorded by the Council was in September 2020 and in this complaint Mrs X said the Council had missed her collections since mid-August 2020.
19. As described at paragraph 4, we cannot investigate complaints about events that happened more than 12 months before someone complained to us, unless we decide there are good reasons. I have decided there are good reasons to consider events from October 2019 onwards. This is because, as described below, the Council did not respond to Mrs X’s missed collection reports and did not tell her how to escalate her concerns when she used its complaints procedure. I consider this delayed Mrs X’s complaint to the Ombudsman by one year.

The Council’s procedures for assisted collection and missed collections

20. Despite the conflicting accounts from Mrs X and the Council about when her assisted collection began, it is agreed that this was in place from at least October 2019 onwards.
21. The Council did not have a written procedure in place for how its assisted collection scheme should work, or the process it should follow when setting up a new assisted collection. In response to our enquiries, the Council described what should have happened in Mrs X’s case, as described at paragraph 14, but had no evidence of actions it took at the time. Given the prolonged and repeated issues experienced by Mrs X, I am satisfied refuse workers were not aware of the arrangements for her assisted collection. Therefore, the process followed by the Council to ensure the assisted collections took place did not work, which was fault.
22. Mrs X said she reported missed collections regularly and frequently, including during the period I investigated, and many of these reports were by phone as well as online. However, the Council’s records showed it recorded only thirteen reports from Mrs X, all made online, with the first in January 2021. I am satisfied Mrs X reported missed collections before making her first complaint in September 2020. I am therefore satisfied the Council failed to properly record all reports made by Mrs X and this was fault.
23. For the missed collection reports the Council did record, I am satisfied it did not respond or take any action to ensure Mrs X’s bin was collected. As described at paragraph 11, we expect councils to ensure they monitor service issues in a meaningful way, and make sure people with assisted collections are not left to struggle when things go wrong. The Council’s lack of response or action following each missed collection report it did record, was fault. Also, the Council said it did not have a process in place to identify patterns of repeated missed collections. Part of ensuring a reliable and effective service is taking suitable steps to identify and resolve recurring issues. The Council did not identify there were recurring, prolonged issues in Mrs X’s case. This was fault.
24. I considered the Council’s explanation of why it repeatedly missed Mrs X’s collection, as described at paragraph 17. I recognise the specific circumstances of Mrs X’s collection may be unusual. However, both Mrs X and Council said it visited and assessed Mrs X’s property and agreed it would provide an assisted collection. Its failure to do so, was fault. The Council could have prevented the issues caused to Mrs X if it had:
• properly set up the assisted collection;
• alerted its refuse workers to Mrs X’s specific circumstances; and
• properly dealt with her reports of missed collections.

These issues caused prolonged injustice to Mrs X over at least two and a half years, leaving her with, at times, unsanitary conditions that she could not resolve herself due to her disability. The Council should remedy the considerable avoidable distress this caused.

Complaint handling

25. As described at paragraph 11, we expect councils to provide considered responses when handling complaints about refuse and recycling, rather than stock responses. The Council sent automated responses to Mrs X at Stage 1 of its complaint procedure. The Council also did not follow up on the actions it told Mrs X it would at Stage 1. Therefore, I consider the Council did not properly consider, respond to, or take proper steps to resolve Mrs X’s complaints. This was fault.
26. The Council’s Stage 1 complaint responses also did not explain to Mrs X that she could escalate her complaint to Stage 2 of the Council’s procedure if she remained dissatisfied. This meant Mrs X did not know there was a route by which she could pursue her complaint further. Therefore, she did not escalate her complaint to Stage 2 until her latest September 2021 complaint. Once the Council considered Mrs X’s concerns at Stage 2, it then did not tell her it had completed its consideration of her complaint or direct her to the Ombudsman. The Council’s failure to explain to Mrs X how she could escalate her complaint, despite it being clear she was repeatedly raising the same issue, was fault.
27. Mrs X made three complaints across a twelve-month period about the same issue. As described at paragraph 23, the Council did not have a process in place to identify patterns of repeated missed collection reports. The Council also did not have a process in place to monitor repeated issues raised via its complaint procedure. As described at paragraph 11, we expect councils to learn from complaints about refuse and recycling and implement those learning points. The Council should have had a process in place to monitor recurring complaints about the same issue from the same person. Its failure to do so was fault. Had this been in place, the Council could have identified it had not properly followed up on its promised actions from Mrs X’s previous complaints and sought to resolve this.
28. When Mrs X came to the Ombudsman, she said the Council had still not collected her bin even though it upheld her complaint and said it would resolve the issues. In response to our enquiries, the Council said this was because of COVID-19 and strike action by its refuse workers. However, the Council upheld Mrs X’s complaint in October 2021, and strike action did not begin until December 2021. Therefore, there were two months in which the Council could have undertaken the monitoring it promised. The Council did not alert the relevant supervisor or monitor collections during this time. The Council’s failure to follow up on Mrs X’s Stage 2 complaint, was fault.
29. The Council’s failure to resolve Mrs X’s repeated complaints, or tell her how to escalate her concerns, meant she spent avoidable time and trouble pursuing her complaint. The Council should remedy the avoidable time and trouble caused.

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Agreed action

30. Within one month of my final decision the Council will:
1. apologise to Mrs X for the faults identified above, from an appropriate senior Council officer;
2. ensure a relevant service manager:

1. visits Mrs X's property to assess the agreed collection point and understand the issues involved;
2. provides Mrs X with details of an appropriate member of staff she can contact directly to report any future issues with missed collections; and
3. ensures refuse workers and supervisors are fully informed of the specific circumstances of Mrs X’s property and the arrangements for her assisted collection.
3. monitor Mrs X’s bin collection for a period of three months to check it is being collected, and report its findings to Mrs X;
4. pay Mrs X £300 to recognise the avoidable distress caused by its failure to deliver her assisted collection service; and
5. pay Mrs X £150 to recognise the avoidable time and trouble she spent pursuing the complaint.

31. Within three months of my final decision, the Council will review its policies and procedures for:
1. assisted collections to ensure:

1. refuse workers are properly alerted to new collections; and
2. arrangements remain clear to refuse workers throughout the duration of the assisted collection.
2. missed bin collection reports to ensure:

1. these are properly recorded, responded to, and monitored for repeated issues;
2. refuse workers and supervisors are alerted to repeated issues; and
3. follow-up actions are recorded.
3. complaints for refuse and recycling to ensure:

1. complainants receive considered responses and are told how to escalate their complaint, both within the Council’s complaints procedure and to the Ombudsman;
2. complaints are monitored for repeated issues; and
3. promised actions are followed up on.

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Final decision

32. I have completed my investigation. There was fault by the Council which caused Mrs X avoidable distress, time, and trouble. The Council agreed to remedy this injustice and review relevant policies and procedures.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

33. Although Mrs X said were problems with her assisted collections from 2016, I did not investigate events before October 2019.
34. The law says we cannot investigate events which happened more than 12 months before somebody complaints to us, unless we decide there are good reasons to do so.
35. I decided the fault in the Council’s handling of Mrs X’s complaints was good reason to go back to October 2019. However, there were no good reasons why Mrs X could not have complained about events before she did in September 2020.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman