Summary: Mr X complains about the Council’s waste collection service. We will not investigate the complaint because an investigation is unlikely to usefully add to the Council’s own investigation or lead to a significantly different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about missed bin collections over the last two years. He wants to know the collection service will be reliable and seeks financial compensation for the missed collections and his time and trouble in pursuing matters.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision and considered what he said.

Back to top

My assessment

7. Over a two-year period from February 2020, Mr X experienced missed bin collections by the Council’s waste service. Mr X reported all the missed collections by phone or email and in October 2021 he made a formal complaint about the problem to the Council.
8. The Council responded to his complaint and explained a long-term sickness absence by the regular driver had caused the problem. It apologised for the impact on his collections and for its poor service in dealing with his complaint, highlighting a lack of response and timely updates. Because of the past problems the Council is now contacting Mr X fortnightly to check his bins have been collected on time.
9. While I understand Mr X has been frustrated with the poor service he received from the Council, I do not consider there are sufficient grounds to warrant a formal investigation by the Ombudsman. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and here the Council has apologised and taken steps to monitor future collections for Mr X. An investigation would be unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome.
10. Moreover, the restriction highlighted at paragraph 3 applies to the earlier missed collections as we would reasonably have expected Mr X to have complained about matters sooner.
11. In responding to my draft decision Mr X says other neighbours were affected and support his complaint and that he does not accept the Council’s explanation for the problems he and others experienced over a long period of time. Mr X has confirmed that progress has been made and that he is currently happy with the service provided but believes he should receive an appropriate resolution to his complaint.
12. Without formal authorisation from his neighbours, the complaint is his alone. However, even if others complained about the same matter, the decision not to investigate would stand for the reasons already explained. There are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation of the complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because an investigation is unlikely to usefully add to the Council’s own investigation or lead to a significantly different outcome.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman