Summary: Miss X complained the Council regularly failed to collect her household waste and recycling. Miss X said this caused her distress and inconvenience. We found the Council is at fault. We recommended it apologise to Miss X, pay her £400 and act to prevent recurrence.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling from August 2020 to January 2022. Miss X said this caused her distress from the overflowing rubbish bins; inconvenience at having to report the missed collections and; time chasing the Council to try and resolve the problem. Miss X said she also incurred costs as she paid for her waste to be privately cleared on three occasions after the Council did not collect it.

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What I have investigated

2. I have investigated Miss X’s complaint about the Council failing to collect her household waste and recycling from January 2021 to January 2022.
3. I have not investigated older matters for the reasons explained at the end of this statement.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this report, we 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. We 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)
6. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)
7. 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

8. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
9. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on a draft of this decision and I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

The Council’s bin collections

10. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly, and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
11. The Council contracts its waste collection services out to a service provider. The service provider collects food and garden waste (green bins) weekly, general waste (grey bins) every two weeks and recyclables (blue bins and black bins) every four weeks.
12. Although the Council contracts out its waste services, it holds ultimate responsibility for ensuring the quality of the service and is accountable if things go wrong.

Assisted collections

13. The Council provides an assisted collection service to residents with disabilities or mobility problems who find it hard to place their bins out for collection. The service provider collects the bins from wherever they are left and returns them to the same location once emptied.

Reporting missed collections

14. The Council’s website says residents should report missed collections within two working days. If the bin is missed by mistake, the Council will arrange for a crew to return, normally within two working days.
15. If a resident experiences repeated issues they can complain to the Council. The Council has a two-stage complaints process.

Effective complaint handling

16. In 2020 the Ombudsman published its updated ‘Effective complaint handling for local authorities’. One of the core principles is an expectation local authorities will act on ‘being customer focused’, by:
• Defining what the complainant says when wrong from their point of view and the impact they say it has had on them.
• Being clear what the decision is, and what the Council will do to put things right if something has gone wrong.

What happened

17. Miss X has assisted waste collections. This means her bins are collected from wherever they are placed and returned to the same location once emptied.
18. Miss X reported a grey missed bin collection on 1 January 2021 and another one on 24 March. When she called the Council on 24 March, she also advised she had moved all her bins to the rear of her property.
19. Information provided by the Council shows a supervisor from the service provider visited on 6 April to speak with Miss X and noted she had moved the bins. The supervisor then communicated this to the bin crew.
20. Council records show Miss X did not report any missed bin collections in April or May. However, in June, the crew noted excess waste at Miss X’s property and arranged to clear it on 2 June.
21. From June to the end of July Miss X made nine reports of missed bin collections: three black, two grey, three green and one blue.
22. On 26 July a supervisor from the service provider visited Miss X but there was no answer. The Council noted Miss X’s bins were overflowing and arranged for the excess waste to be cleared.
23. In August and September Miss X made five reports of green bin missed collections and one report of a missed blue bin collection. The service provider returned within the two-day window to empty the bins.
24. Miss X made a complaint to the Council on 2 September. She said she had reported missed green bin collections for the last two weeks and she had ongoing issues with missed collections with all her bins since October 2020.
25. In response the Council said that due to high levels of staff absence, it had cancelled some of the green bin collections. It advised Miss X to bring her green bin back in and present it on her next scheduled collection date or visit a household waste and recycling centre. It did not address the continuing issues Miss X had raised with all her bin collections since October 2020.
26. Miss X was unhappy with the response and complained again to the Council about her missed blue bin collection in September. She made a further complaint on 8 October as no one had returned to empty the blue bin. She complained about her continuing missed collections since 2020 and said she had to call the Council every week to report missed collections. She explained she had health issues and the situation was causing her unnecessary stress and pain.
27. The Council responded under stage 2 of its complaint process on 20 October. It said:
• The supervisor for the service provider had spoken to the crew and issued a memo which they had signed for.
• The supervisor had monitored the last two bin collections to ensure the crew emptied the bins. On both occasions the crew emptied the bins and returned them correctly.
• The supervisor will check the next collection to ensure the improvement is sustained.
• It apologised for the frustration experienced in relation to Miss X’s complaint.
28. In November Miss X reported a missed grey bin collection. She also informed the Council she had moved the bins back to the front of her property to monitor the situation. She reported two further missed grey bin collections in December.
29. Miss X brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in December 2021.
30. Council records show a supervisor from the service provider visited Miss X on 10 January 2022 but she was not in. The service provider emptied the bins and recorded they were now at the front of the property, however no one had told them of this.
31. The supervisor visited Miss X again on 25 January. She confirmed she now stored the bins at the front of her property.
32. Evidence provided by the Council shows the service provider then carried out a period of monitoring for Miss X’s collections and it did not miss any bin collections.
33. When I spoke to Miss X in April, she told me there had been times the crew came back to collect the rubbish after she reported a missed collection, but most times they would not. This often meant a wait of eight weeks before a black or blue bin was emptied. She said the build-up of rubbish was so substantial she had to pay a rubbish removal company three times to remove it.
34. Miss X also told me the service had improved over the last few weeks, and the service provider has emptied her bins regularly which had helped reduce the stress she had experienced.

The Council’s response to enquiries

35. The Council acknowledged Miss X has historically experienced disruption to her bin collections.

It said in summary:

• This was due to a new zonal way of working introduced in October 2019 which caused disruption to the service that did not stabilise until March 2020.
• In 2020 and 2021 the COVID-19 pandemic brought about staff shortages, more waste from households and reduced green bin collection rounds as staff were deployed to other collection rounds. It has only been since April 2022, that the Council has been able to deploy a full service each week.
• In Miss X’s case there were factors which exacerbated the challenges. In April 2021 Miss X moved her bins from the front of her property to the rear, then in January 2022, she had moved the bins back to the front, requiring a further visit from a supervisor to confirm the location of the bins.
• It provides 140 litre bins to households which has sufficient waste capacity for a family of up to five people. Miss X has a larger than standard grey bin for household waste, at 240 litres. The Council can see no evident cause for the frequent excessive volumes of waste produced by Miss X, neither has Miss X given any reason.
• There were times when it cleared the excess waste to give Miss X a fresh start. It noted, despite no missed collections reported since January 2022, there is still regularly excess waste at Miss X’s property. When a large quantity of waste is produced, a delayed collection may be more of an inconvenience to a customer.
• A cyber-attack on the IT system of its contractor in December 2020 resulted in significant difficulties, which were not fully resolved until June 2021 and were beyond the Council’s control.

Analysis

36. Although the Council contracts out its waste services, it remains responsible for the service provided to its residents.
37. I understand the challenges the Council faced in 2020 and 2021 in maintaining an effective waste collection service. However, the evidence I have seen shows a significant loss of service during 2021 for Miss X, over a period of twelve months. During this time, the Council failed to ensure it emptied Miss X’s bins, when due, on twenty occasions that I am aware of. This is fault.
38. This fault caused Miss X distress and inconvenience, both with her waste collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Miss X has also been put to unnecessary time and trouble trying to resolve this matter. This is injustice and I will recommend a remedy to address this.
39. Furthermore, when Miss X moved her bins in March and November, she reported it to the Council by telephone. It was up to the Council to ensure it passed information on to the service provider promptly. From the evidence I have seen, it did not do this. This is fault.
40. This fault, on the balance of probability, was likely to have contributed to the missed collections around the times Miss X moved her bins, causing Miss X undue distress and frustration. This is injustice I will make a service improvement remedy to address this.
41. When the Council responded to Miss X’s stage one complaint in 2021, it did not address her complaint about continuing issues with her collections from October 2020. It also advised her, despite being on assisted waste collections, she could take her waste to the waste and recycling centre. This is fault.
42. This fault caused Miss X frustration and put her to further time and trouble in pursuing her complaint through the Council’s stage 2 process. Had the Council dealt with Miss X’s complaint properly at this stage 1 process, it could have monitored Miss X’s collections sooner and resolved the issues. This is injustice and I will make a service improvement remedy to address this.
43. By the time I investigated this complaint the Council had already taken steps to ensure it no longer missed Miss X’s bin collections and had completed a period of monitoring. Miss X told me she has not had any further issues and therefore I do not find it necessary to make a service improvement remedy for the Council regarding the bin collections.

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Agreed action

44. To remedy the injustice set out above, I recommended the Council carry out the following actions:
45. Within one month:
• Issue an apology to Miss X.
• Pay Miss X £300 for distress.
• Pay Miss X £100 for time and trouble.
• Ask Miss X for evidence of costs incurred on private waste collection between January 2021 and January 2022. Upon receipt, reimburse Miss X these costs.
46. Within three months:
• Issue a reminder to complaint handling staff to ensure all waste service complaints are addressed in full and responses are appropriate for the individual circumstances of the complainant.
• Review how it shares information with the service provider to ensure better communication should Miss X moves her bins again.
47. The Council has accepted my recommendations.

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Final decision

48. I have found fault by the Council. This fault caused Miss X injustice and the Council has agreed to my recommendations, therefore I have completed my investigation.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

49. I have not investigated Miss X’s complaint about missed bin collections from August 2020 to October 2020. This is because Miss X did not complain to us as the time. If she was unhappy with the Council’s response, she could have brought her complaint to us then. I do not consider there is sufficient reason to exercise discretion to investigate the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman