Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s bin staff not returning empty bins to the collection point. The injustices claimed are not significant enough to warrant us investigating. Mr X has not complained to the Council about missed bin collections. We do not investigate matters which have not first been through a council’s internal complaints process.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council’s bin staff:
1. do not return his empty bins to their collection point, sometimes obstructing his driveway;
2. have sometimes not collected and emptied his bins.
2. Mr X feels he is being targeted by the bin staff. The matter is causing him the inconvenience of sometimes having to move the bin away from the gate to leave the house, or sometimes cross the road or walk about 20 metres to retrieve it. Mr X says bin collections are missed without reason. He feels helpless as the Council seems unwilling or unable to resolve the matters. Mr X wants the Council to monitor so bins are emptied and returned to the collection point, and financial remedy for the loss of service and his time and trouble.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 an investigation if we decide the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We recognise bin crews leaving empty bins across Mr X’s drive causes him frustration and inconvenience from having to move them before being able to enter or exit his property, as would having to collect a bin from a different part of the road. But it is not a significant enough personal injustice to Mr X to justify us using public money to investigate this complaint.
6. Mr X says the Council has sometimes not emptied his bins. But this issue did not form part of his complaint to the Council. We will not investigate a matter which has not been through a council’s internal complaint process first. We call such complaints ‘premature’. If Mr X wants to complain about any past missed bin collections, he would need to do so with the Council first, giving it the opportunity to which it is entitled to consider, respond to and possibly resolve the complaint. If he is dissatisfied with the Council’s final decision, or it takes longer than three months to complete its complaint process, he may refer the matter to us. If Mr X experiences missed bin collections in future, he may report them to the Council as a request for service.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the injustice from the bin staff not replacing his bin at the collection point is not significant enough to warrant our involvement;
• the issue of missed bin collections has not gone through the Council’s internal complaints process, so is premature.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman