Summary: We will not pursue Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to collect household waste. This is because the Council has agreed to our recommendations to monitor collections and pay Mr X £200 to recognise the injustice he has been caused.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council repeatedly failed to collect his household waste over a period of several months. Mr X says he complained to the Council, but the problem has continued. Mr X says he has experienced rats and fly tipping in his street and has had to take his own rubbish to the recycling centre. Mr X says this has caused him inconvenience.

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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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and Guidance on Remedies.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says he complained to the Council in March 2022 after it failed to collect his household waste for the whole of February.
6. The Council wrote to Mr X after it investigated his complaint. The Council said staff shortages had caused the missed collections. The Council apologised to
   Mr X and offered to monitor the collections on his street.
7. The Council missed six household waste collections between 24 February and 6 May 2022. Four of these missed collections occurred after the Council had said it would monitor what was happening.
8. Mr X had to make trips to the local recycling centre to dispose of his waste and says he experienced rats and fly tipping in his street because of the missed collections.
9. The Council has agreed to our recommendations to remedy the injustice Mr X has been caused. The recommendations set out below are in line with our Guidance on Remedies. Therefore, there is nothing further we could achieve from an investigation of this complaint.

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Agreed action

10. The Council has agreed to our recommendation to pay Mr X £200 to acknowledge the unnecessary time and trouble he went to as a result of its failure to collect his household waste. The Council should pay Mr X within four weeks of our final decision.
11. The Council has also agreed to monitor Mr X’s household collections. The Council should carry out the monitoring for a period of 8 weeks following our final decision. The Council should provide records of its monitoring to the Ombudsman and details of any steps taken to improve its performance once this has been done.

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Decision

12. We will not pursue Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to collect household waste. This is because the Council has agreed to our recommendations to monitor collections and pay Mr X £200 to recognise the injustice he has been caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman