Summary: We will not investigate the complaint about the refuse collection service because part of the complaint is late and because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains about a shambolic refuse collection service. He says the Council provides incorrect information about the collection schedule and complains he does not get garden waste collections.

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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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence. I considered our Assessment Code and invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

5. In March 2018 the Council told Mr X it was stopping the garden waste collection service for his road because the rural van could not manage the collections. It said it had tried to find an alternative way to provide the service but a safe alternative could not be found.
6. Mr X reported a missed refuse collection in August and September 2021. Both collections were rectified. One was caused by the national driver shortage and the other was due to the rural vehicle being out of action for a few days.
7. Mr X also reported that the app and paper calendar were wrong which had led to him presenting the bins on the wrong day. The Council found no issues with the app but said his road had been issued with the wrong paper schedule. The Council issued a correct version in March and says no further problems have been reported.
8. I will not investigate the complaint about the withdrawal of the garden waste service. This is because it occurred more than four years ago and I have not seen any good reason to investigate a late complaint.
9. I will not investigate the other issues because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation. There have been a small number of missed collections but they were rectified and the Council explained why they occurred. There was an error with the paper schedule but it has been corrected and there is nothing to suggest there is a problem with the app. There have been a few minor issues but they do not amount to fault requiring an investigation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and because part of the complaint is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman