Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council removing and not replacing a waste bin. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council, or sufficient injustice caused to Mrs X, to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has removed and not replaced a waste bin near her home. She says this has led to rubbish and dog waste accumulating, which she is clearing, and the situation reflects poorly on the town. Mrs X wants the Council to reinstate the same quality of bin in the same place as before and prove it is monitoring rubbish in the area.

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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
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. We cannot question whether an organisation’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council says it has decided not to replace the bin at this time and has instead changed its cleaning regime to maintain the area. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decisions here to warrant us investigating. Councils have discretion to decide how to manage and fund their street cleaning services. They are entitled to make decisions about how they conduct that service. I recognise Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s approach and wants the bin replaced. But it is not fault for a council to properly make a decision with which someone disagrees.
6. I have considered Mrs X’s personal injustice. Littering and the loss of the bin causes understandable annoyance to her. But Mrs X’s injustice stemming from the Council’s decisions is not significant enough to justify us using our resources to investigate the complaint.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X's complaint because:
• there is not enough evidence of Council fault to justify us investigating; and
• the injustice to her is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman