Summary: Mr X complained about repeated missed bin collections and the Council’s response to his complaints. The Council was at fault for missing Mr X’s bin collections, poor complaints handling and failing to consider Mr X’s reasonable adjustments. This caused Mr X avoidable distress and uncertainty. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X for failing to consider his reasonable adjustments and pay him £200 to acknowledge the distress caused.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about repeated missed waste collections between January 2022 and August 2022. He said:
• The missed collections led to waste build-up in his home which affected his health.
• He reported the missed collections on every occasion, but his bin was often not collected until the following collection date.
• The Council’s complaints system is not fit for purpose.
• Waste collection staff conduct was inappropriate at times.
2. Mr X says the issue has caused him distress, inconvenience and has affected his health.

Back to top

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. It is unlawful to treat someone less favorably because of age, race, religion, or disability. We can consider whether an authority has had “due regard” to their duties under the Equality Act. However, only a court can say whether a council has acted unlawfully or in breach of the Equality Act.
6. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I spoke with Mr X about the complaint and considered information he provided.
8. I considered information provided by the Council.
9. Mr X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on the draft decision. I considered comments received before I made a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Environmental waste collection

10. The Environmental Protection Act (1990) places a duty on councils to collect household and recyclable waste from properties in its area.
11. The collection schedule for Mr X’s road says that general waste and recycling are collected on alternate weeks on a Friday. Between January 2022 and August 2022 there were four occasions where collections for waste and recycling were on a different day.
12. The Council’s waste collection policy says if a collection is missed due to a crews’ inattention it will return to collect the bin within a target of 48 hours of the issue being raised. Residents are required to report a non-collected bin within 24 hours.
13. The Council’s waste collection policy outlines that people with physical disabilities or mental health conditions may be considered for assisted collections.

Council’s complaints policy

14. The Council has a complaints policy - the “Customer Care – Compliment, Comments and Complaints Policy”. The complaints process has two stages. The policy states that the Council will aim to acknowledge a complaint within three working days and respond to complaints within 15 working days of acknowledgement. If there is a delay, the Council will inform the complainant. If a person is dissatisfied after the stage 1 response, they can request a stage 2 review. The policy before July 2022 did not say how a person could make a complaint.
15. The policy was updated in July 2022 to say complaints can be made online through the Council’s website, by email, by letter, by telephone or in person.

Reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities

16. The reasonable adjustment duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010 and applies to any body which carries out a public function. It aims to make sure that a disabled person can use a service as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
17. Service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
18. The duty is ‘anticipatory’. This means service providers cannot wait until a disabled person wants to use their services but must think in advance about what disabled people with a range of impairments might reasonably need.

Public sector equality duty

19. The Public Sector Equality Duty requires all local authorities (and bodies acting on their behalf) to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. The duty requires equality considerations to be reflected into the design of policies and the delivery of services, including internal policies.

What happened

20. Between January 2022 and April 2022 Mr X called the Council on several occasions via its customer service team to report that it had failed to collect his bin. The Council recorded four occasions where the bin collection was missed. On two occasions it told Mr X to leave the additional waste next to his bin to be collected on the next collection date. On two other occasions the Council collected the waste more than 48 hours after Mr X’s report. Mr X said he asked the customer service team on several occasions to register a formal complaint about the matter. He says the team refused to do this over the phone and directed him to the Council’s online complaint form.
21. In April 2022 Mr X submitted a formal complaint to the Council through its website. He told the Council:
• It had missed several waste collections and he had informed the Council through its call centre. However, the Council failed to act on his reports or record his dissatisfaction as a formal complaint as he had requested.
• “Re-collections” at times did not take place until the following collection date two weeks later, resulting in a build-up of waste which affected his health.
• A waste collection operative had sworn and acted inappropriately when conducting a re-collection of his waste.
• He had a disability and the build-up of waste had attracted rats and was affecting his health.
• He wanted to make a subject access request for information held by the Council about him.
22. The Council says it spoke to Mr X about his complaint, but there is no record of this conversation. It did not provide a written stage 1 response.
23. Between April 2022 and July 2022, the Council logged six further instances of missed bins. On one occasion it re-collected his bin more than 48 hours later. On three occasions it re-collected within 48 hours. On one occasion it told Mr X he had reported the missed bin too late, and on one occasion it closed the report because the whole street had been missed and was already under investigation.
24. In May 2022 Mr X sent an email to the Council. He said it continued to fail to collect his bins. He said he had called the Council’s call centre but could not get through. He complained the Council had not responded to his stage 1 response and said this was out of timescales set out in its policy. He asked for a senior member of staff to contact him.
25. In June 2022 the Council responded to Mr X’s subject access request, providing him with data about calls it had logged. The Council said it could not provide CCTV footage of the waste collection crew because the footage is overwritten every 31 days, and its policy says it would not release the footage to him in any event – only to insurers, police, or investigatory parties.
26. In July and August 2022 Mr X asked the Council why his complaint had been closed without a formal response. The Council responded shortly after and signposted him to the assisted collections scheme.
27. The Council then sent Mr X a stage 2 response. It said:
• It had logged eight missed bin collections between February 2022 and July 2022. The reasons for the missed collections were due to a change in staff and Mr X’s bins being located near business waste bins which led to confusion.
• Notes about the location and specific issues with Mr X’s bin were missing from the waste collector’s in-vehicle recorder. It said this had now been addressed and the supervisor would meet with staff on the day of collection to ensure the bins were not missed.
• It could not investigate Mr X’s complaint about waste collection staff swearing near his house because the specific date of the incident was not given. However, the Council had reminded staff of the need for proper conduct.
• Only one customer service log in February 2022 indicated Mr X wanted to make a formal complaint, and it noted he would do so via the website. The Council upheld Mr X’s complaint that call centre staff would direct any callers to the Council’s website should they wish to make a formal complaint and appeared not to be aware they could take a complaint over the phone, if requested to do so.
• It had reminded customer service staff that if a complaint is received about a service over the phone, the formal complaints process should be explained to the complainant including the different ways in which they could raise the complaint.
• It had collected any missed waste on or before the next collection date.
• It had not sent Mr X a written stage 1 response and apologised for this, as well as the distress caused by its failure to collect Mr X’s waste.
• It had reminded all managers who may be involved with dealing with stage 1 complaints of the requirement to send a complaint response letter.
28. Mr X remained unhappy and brought his complaint to us. He said the build-up of waste affected his health and had attracted vermin. It had cost him financially as he had to pay a pest control service to eradicate the vermin. He said he told the Council he was unable to make a complaint online, but the Council’s customer service operative told him the only way to complain was through the Council’s website. He said the Council’s customer service staff were rude. He provided a log of the number of calls he had made to the Council. Since his complaint, Mr X said the waste collection service had improved.
29. In response to our enquiries the Council:
• Said its policy for how it manages complaints from people who cannot access the internet was updated in July 2022 to reflect that complaints can be made online, by letter or by phoning the customer service centre.
• Accepted it failed to provide a consistent service on several occasions to Mr X. It said it had spoken to staff to ensure it could learn from the situation. It had reminded customer service centre staff of the process to follow when customers ask to make a complaint, including offering different ways to contact the Council if they are unable to access the internet.
• Offered £200 to Mr X in recognition of the distress caused by the faults.

Analysis

30. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence or no evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.

Missed bin collections

31. The Council has accepted fault and apologised for the inconsistent service it provided to Mr X when it failed to collect his bin and for its poor complaints handling. Mr X said the missed collections caused a build-up of waste and attracted rats for which he had to pay an exterminator. We cannot know for certain whether the missed collections led to the rats. However, the fault has caused uncertainty about whether the missed collections contributed to the problem.
32. The Council’s waste collection policy states that when a bin is not collected because of a fault on its behalf, it will collect the bin within 48 hours of a report. The Council failed to re-collect Mr X’s bin within 48 hours on several occasions, and at times waited until the next collection date. This is against the Council’s policy and is fault. The fault caused Mr X frustration and uncertainty about when his waste would be re-collected.

Complaints response & Equality Act

33. Mr X says the Council failed to record his dissatisfaction as a complaint and failed to consider his request to make a complaint by phone, instead signposting him to the Council’s website.
34. There are no records of Mr X’s request to submit a formal complaint by phone. However, in its stage 2 response the Council said that call centre staff would signpost anyone to the online process if they wished to make a formal complaint. The Council’s policy before July 2022 did not specify how a complaint could be made. Therefore, I consider it more likely than not that the Council told Mr X to use the online web form.
35. The Council’s policy at the time of Mr X’s complaint did not include alternative means by which a complaint could be submitted. This was not in line with the Council’s duties under the Public Sector Equality Duty and was fault.
36. The Council also failed to consider reasonable adjustments for Mr X because of his disability when he rang the Council to complain and told them he was unable to use the online form. Therefore, the Council did not have due regard for its responsibilities under the Equality Act and this was fault.
37. The above faults caused Mr X frustration and distress. Since Mr X’s complaint I have seen evidence the Council has updated its complaints policy to include alternative ways a complaint can be submitted and staff have been reminded of its policy. The amended policy meets the public sector equality duty and should prevent recurrence of the fault.
38. The Council failed to respond to Mr X’s formal complaint in April 2022 in writing. This is poor complaint handling and is fault. The Council accepted it was at fault and apologised to Mr X. The Council said it reminded managers of the need to send a letter after completing a stage 1 investigation. This is an appropriate action to prevent the fault reoccurring.
39. In its stage 2 response the Council told Mr X it could not investigate his concerns about waste collection staff conduct because it was unclear about when the incident occurred. Mr X complained about the matter in April 2022. Although the Council spoke with Mr X following his complaint, there is no evidence it asked for further details about this part of this complaint to enable it to make further investigations. Had the Council asked Mr X when the incident occurred, it could have asked for that day’s CCTV to be retained. It did not do this and as the CCTV recording is overwritten every 31 days, there is no longer any evidence of the incident. This is poor complaint handling and is fault. The fault caused Mr X frustration about the outcome of the Council’s investigation and uncertainty about whether the outcome could have been different.

Consideration of remedy

40. In its response to us, the Council has offered Mr X £200 in recognition of the uncertainty and distress caused. This is an appropriate amount to remedy the injustice caused and in line with our remedies guidance. The Council should now make this offer to Mr X.

Back to top

Agreed action

41. Within one month of the final decision the Council will:
• Write to Mr X and apologise for the frustration caused by failing to consider his reasonable adjustments and take his complaint verbally through its call centre.
• Pay Mr X £200 to acknowledge the distress and uncertainty it caused by the repeated missed bin collections and its failure to respond in line with its complaints policy.
• Remind relevant staff when a missed bin is reported it should return to collect the waste within 48 hours in line with its waste collection policy.
42. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Final decision

43. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault and the Council has agreed actions to remedy the injustice caused by the fault.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman