Summary: Mr D says the Council repeatedly failed to collect his recycling in 2021. The Ombudsman found evidence of fault, upheld the complaint, and completed the investigation. The Council has accepted our recommended actions including financial redress.

The complaint

1. The complainant (whom I refer to as Mr D) says the Council repeatedly failed to collect his recycling from March 2021 until November.

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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 have considered the information provided by Mr D including copies of his emails to the Council. The Council has suffered a cyber data breach and so has not been able to provide any supporting evidence. However, on reflection the evidence sent by Mr D is sufficient for me to reach an informed view on the case.
5. I shared my draft decision with both parties.

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What I found

What happened

6. Mr D moved into a new build property in March 2021. He emailed the Council on 16 March asking for bins. He chased up the Council on 24 March, it said bins had now been ordered and would take up to ten working days to arrive. In mid-April Mr D again chased the Council because his bins had not arrived. I understand the bins were delivered to Mr D by the end of that month.
7. On 9 May Mr D emailed the Council, the 30 April collection had been missed. The re-collection he booked for 4 May was also missed along with a further re-collection on 7 May. He had two months’ worth of recycling to dispose.
8. On 16 May he told the Council there had still been no recycling collection. A further collection was missed on 23 May. The next day the Council replied stating it had asked the recycling crew to collect. There was no explanation of why so many collections had been missed. At the end of May Mr D reported a further missed collection. He told the Council on 6 June that his collections were still being missed. The next day the Council said it would arrange to collect the garden waste. Mr D replied that he did not have a garden and wanted his recycling removed. He reported more missed collections on 9 June and a missed recollection the week after.
9. Mr D reported more missed collections on 1 October, the Council said it had a shortage of drivers. There was another missed collection at the end of the month and two in November.

What should have happened

10. I have no information from the Council about the usual process. However, it would appear that when a collection is missed a resident will report to the Council. The Council will then arrange for a re-collection.
11. The Council says that during the pandemic it prioritised domestic waste and food waste collections “at the expense of recycling collection”. It had a shortage of drivers which exacerbated matters. It sought to “ensure the same residents [were] not missed two weeks running”.

Was there fault by the Council

12. It is clear from the evidence retained by Mr D the Council failed to provide him with a reasonable service.
13. Mr D had to wait longer than normal for his bins and had to chase up the Council before they were ordered. When he did finally receive the bins (around six weeks after his initial request) he then experienced repeated missed recycling collections. He reported at least 16 missed collections and missed re-collections during seven months. This is unacceptable. I appreciate the Council were operating in difficult circumstances, but I have seen no evidence of it ever explaining it was prioritising other collections over recycling to Mr D. In addition, the Council should have intervened after a few consecutive reports from Mr D to check why his property was repeatedly missed. I see no evidence of this happening. The Council’s handling of this case is extremely poor.

Did the fault cause an injustice

14. Mr D was put to unnecessary time and trouble having to pursue the Council for his bins and then for the recycling to be collected. At one stage he had over two months of recycling in his home due to the Council’s failure to collect it.

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Agreed action

15. The Council has agreed with my recommendations and will pay Mr D £140 for time and trouble. In addition, the Council will set out for the Ombudsman what processes it has in place to flag up repeat missed collections and escalate investigation of them.
16. Those actions should be complete within four weeks of the case closing.

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Final decision

17. I have completed the investigation and upheld the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman