Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Ms A’s bin collection because there is no fault by the Council. We will also not investigate Ms A’s complaint that the Council failed to provide her with a copy of its policy on waste collection. This is because Ms A can request this through a Freedom of Information request.

The complaint

1. Ms A complains the Council failed to collect her bin after she had been ill and had not put her bin out for collection. She says the Council did not respond to her complaint in writing and failed to provide a copy of its policy for waste collection.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
3. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Ms A. This includes the Council’s final response to her complaint.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Ms A complained to the Council that it did not return to collect her bin after she had been ill and did not place her bin out on time. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1960 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area. However, Councils can direct when and how these collections take place.
7. The Council’s website says the residents are responsible for placing their bin outside by 7:30am on the day of collection. Therefore, the Council is not at fault.
8. Ms A also says that the Council has not responded to her complaint in writing. The Council provided a final written response to Ms A. Ms A says she first raised her complaint with the Council on 22 February 2022. The Council responded at stage 3 of its complaints process. The Council’s policy says a response will be sent within 20 working days. The Council provided Ms A with a response on 9 March 2022, 11 working days after she first raised the issue with the Council. Therefore, there is no fault in the way the Council responded to her complaint.
9. Ms A asked the Council for a copy of its waste collection policy. Ms A can submit a Freedom of Information request to the Council to obtain this information and if this is not provided in 20 working days she can raise this with the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Information Commissioner is the body set up in law to deal with complaints about Freedom of Information requests and is better placed to deal with Ms A’s complaint. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms A’s complaint because there is no evidence of fault in the way the Council carried out its bin collections or how it responded to Ms A’s complaint. We will also not investigate Ms A’s complaint about the Council’s failure to provide her with a copy of its policy as the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to deal with this complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman