Summary: Mrs X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from her street on the scheduled day. This leads to an unpleasant accumulation of waste on the street. The Council’s repeated failure to collect the recycling from Mrs X’s street over a sustained period of time amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mrs X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from her street on the scheduled day. Mrs X complained that around half the collections are missed as the recycling is often only collected once a month. This leads to an unpleasant accumulation of waste on the street.

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What I have investigated

2. Although Mrs X complains of problems with the recycling collections for a number of years, my investigation will only focus on events since 2021.

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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. 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

5. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mrs X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

6. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
7. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
8. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.

What happened here

9. Mrs X complains of missed recycling collection on her street for many years. She states that although there should be fortnightly collections the Council routinely only collects their recycling every four weeks. This means the street is constantly covered in items blown out of the overflowing bins and she has to store excess recycling in her house.
10. According to the Council’s records Mrs X has reported 12 missed recycling collections since December 2021. Other residents on Mrs X’s street have reported similar missed collections. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner.
11. For example, Mrs X reported missed collections on 3 May and 17 May 2022, and the Council closed these reports on 18 May and 31 May 2022 respectively. It is unclear why if the Council made a collection on 18 May 2022 it did not close both reports that day.
12. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mrs X also made formal complaints about the waste collection service. In January 2022 Mrs X complained she was constantly having to report missed recycling collections. She asserted the substandard level of service was not acceptable and asked the Council to collect her recycling on time, every time. Mrs X also requested compensation for the inconvenience the missed collections caused.
13. Whilst waiting for the Council’s response, Mrs X reported a further missed collection and questioned why her street was constantly affected by missed collections.
14. The Council’s response apologised for any inconvenience caused. It confirmed it had asked a manager to ensure the collection crew emptied all of the bins that were correctly presented for collection. Mrs X was not satisfied by the Council’s response and asked for her complaint to be reviewed. Despite the Council’s assurance, the collection crew had again failed to collect the recycling from her street. Given the regularity of the missed collections and a pattern for the recycling to be collected every four weeks, Mrs X questioned whether the Council had missed her street off the rota.
15. In its response the Council acknowledged its system showed it had dropped the scheduled collections from Mrs X’s street twice in February 2022. It provided Mrs X with a link to its website so that she could see if her street had been missed due to operational difficulties. The Council confirmed that senior management were aware of the operational difficulties but it would not offer compensation for this.
16. As Mrs X remains dissatisfied she has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her complaint. In response to my enquiries the Council states it has been reviewing the routes and rounds for each of the four waste collection depots. This is a time consuming exercise, particularly for the depot which collects Mrs X’s waste. Internal correspondence states the missed collections are due to a shortage of drivers and the recycling maps being too large to complete. The Council is looking in to both issues. It states mobile technology in the cab is due to be implemented at the depot from July 2022 which will greatly assist with route optimisation.
17. The Council has not previously monitored Mrs X’s recycling collections but has now arranged to monitor the collections from Mrs X’s street for an eight week period.
18. In response to the draft decision the Council states the recycling rounds are being rationalised to make them more manageable. This work has recently been completed and new recycling rounds should be implemented once the Commonwealth Games have concluded.

Analysis

19. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect the recycling from Mrs X’s street over a sustained period of time. These failings in the service amount to fault.
20. The Council states Mrs X has reported a total of 12 missed recycling collections in the last 12 months, but I consider it likely there were more. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Mrs X’s complaint refers to a missed collection not included in the Council’s list. Other residents on Mrs X’s street also identify other missed collections.
21. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections, or when it actually collected the recycling.
22. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council has dealt with Mrs X’s complaints. The Council’s initial response was generic and did not address Mrs X’s particular concerns. Similarly the stage two response acknowledged it had missed consecutive collections in February 2022 but did not respond to Mrs X’s concern about regular monthly rather than fortnightly collections. While we would not criticise the Council for utilising a template for responses, this should be tailored to respond to the individual concerns.
23. The Council states the depot can monitor reports of missed collections by analysing their dropped work spreadsheets to see if certain streets/addresses start to appear frequently. I would therefore have expected the volume of reports from Mrs X and other residents on her street to have alerted the Council to a potential problem. This should in turn have prompted an investigation to identify and resolve the issue.
24. It is unclear how long the Council has been aware that crews are unable to complete the current recycling rounds or what action it has taken to date to address this. Where the Council is aware that certain streets or areas of the city are not receiving regular fortnightly collections because the recycling rounds are too large to complete we would expect it to take prompt and effective action to resolve this. I am pleased to note the Council has now completed a reorganisation of the recycling routes and new routes will be implemented within the next few weeks.
25. I also note that the Council has now arranged to monitor the recycling collections from Mrs X’s street. Effective monitoring should assist in identifying and resolving any particular issues with the recycling collections on Mrs X’s street.
26. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mrs X an injustice. As the missed collections affect the whole street Mrs X has not only had to manage her own uncollected recycling, but she has also had to endure large amounts of uncollected waste on her street, over a sustained period of time. Mrs X has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. She has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

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Agreed action

27. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections has caused.
28. The Council should carry out this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

The Council’s repeated failure to collect the recycling from Mrs X’s street over a sustained period of time amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman