Summary: Mr X complains the Council has persistently failed to collect his garden waste. We find fault with the Council for the missed collections, causing frustration to Mr X. We have put forward remedies to ensure this does not continue.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council have persistently failed to collect his garden waste. He says the Council have collected the garden waste around five times since May 2021.
2. Mr X would like the Council to ensure the waste is collected regularly and change the online reporting tool so people can report when the whole street has a missed collection.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.
5. 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

6. I have considered Mr X’s complaint and supporting information and have spoken to him about the complaint.
7. I have considered the Council’s response to Mr X and to my enquiries.
8. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

9. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area.

10. The Council’s practice is to make a weekly household waste and recycling collection and a fortnightly garden waste collection.

11. If the crew cannot clear a whole road they will return within two working days. This does not need to be reported to the Council, and there is no way to do so.
12. If there is a missed collection it must be reported online.

What happened

13. Mr X says he has had problems with his bin collections since 2017. For this decision we are looking at his most recent complaint to the Council, regarding missed collections from May 2021.
14. Mr X lives in a small street and says they are often forgotten about when it comes to bin collections.
15. Mr X complains there has been persistent failure to pick up his garden waste. He has had to make a 17 mile round trip journey to the tip, twice.
16. Mr X says residents are now increasing their bonfires to get rid of the garden waste.
17. Between May 2021 and March 2022 Mr X says the garden waste has been collected around five times. It should be collected every fortnight.
18. Mr X complained to the Council in November. The first complaint response from the Council stated the crew had not reported any issues with missed collections. However a team manager would monitor Mr X’s collections for the next month.
19. The stage two complaint response from the Council in February said a Waste Team Manager will attend the address and if any issues are noted they will be addressed. The Council agreed there had been some missed collections due to parked cars blocking access.
20. Mr X does not agree with this. He said when the Council made a visit only one resident was spoken to. He was informed there would be a meeting with his Councillor and a Director from the Council, but the Council have said in the enquiry response the meeting did not take place.
21. In the enquiry response the Council said a full service review has been carried out recently due to a lot of personnel leaving at short notice. There is now a dedicated officer within the Waste Service who will monitor collections on a daily basis and upload information weekly. This is a welcome improvement.

Analysis

22. Mr X complains of garden waste not being collected and it affecting the whole street.
23. The Council say when there were missed collections this was due to parked cars blocking access. However there is no evidence of the Council notifying residents that this was affecting collections.
24. Mr X has complained to the Council and to his Councillor. He emailed his Councillor 19 times between July and November 2021. These were recorded by the Council as a Members Enquiry rather than a complaint or missed collection.
25. There has been a problem with the collections. The way in which this is monitored needs to be changed and this has been acknowledged by the Council.
26. This fault has led to inconvenience and frustration to Mr X, who has had to make two visits to the tip, and has spent time and trouble reporting the missed collections, emailing his Councillor and making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

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Agreed action

27. Within one month of the final decision the Council should:
• write to Mr X and apologise for the frustration, distress and time and trouble caused by the identified faults;
• pay Mr X £150 for the missed collections, in recognition of the injustice caused to him by the identified faults; and
• pay Mr X £50 in recognition of the time and trouble he has spent contacting the Council and pursuing his complaint.

The Council should provide us with evidence it has done so.

28. The Council should monitor all Mr X’s collections for two months following the final decision. The Council should provide us with written evidence it has done so each month.
29. We have made service improvement recommendations to the Council on a number of other recent cases, and we have asked that compliance with our decisions should be monitored.
30. The Council should also:
• conduct regular audits to ensure the new monitoring system they have implemented is working.
31. The Council should provide evidence of this in the next three months.

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Final decision

32. I find fault with the Council for the missed waste collections, causing frustration to Mr X. I have put forward remedies so this does not continue to occur.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman