Summary: Ms X complained that although she should receive an assisted collection service the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled days, despite collecting her neighbours’ waste. The Council’s repeated failings in the assisted collection service it provides to Ms X are fault. This fault has caused Ms X an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Ms X complained that although she should receive an assisted collection service the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste and recycling on the scheduled days, despite collecting her neighbours’ waste.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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

4. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Ms X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Ms X; and
• Ms 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

5. 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.
6. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
7. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
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. Ms X says there have been problems with her assisted collections for a number of years and she has made many complaints. This investigation only focuses on events since 2021. Ms X stores her refuse sacks in a bin which her son pulls out a cupboard by her front door ready for collection each week. Once it is empty she is able to push the bin back to the cupboard with her feet but cannot move the bin when it is full. Nor can she lift the sacks into or out of the bin. When her waste is not collected the bin remains blocking her path so Ms X cannot leave her property until someone else moves the bin for her.
10. In January 2021 Ms X complained about consecutive missed collections. She said she had seen the collection crew walk past and look in her garden, but not collect the waste. The Council responded to Ms X’s complaint the same day and apologised for any inconvenience and upset caused. It confirmed the service manager would remind crews to make assisted collections and ensure the bins are returned to Ms X’s front door. The Council also confirmed it would monitor Ms X’s collections.
11. According to the Council’s records Ms X reported further missed collections in the July and November 2021. The records also show Ms X has reported eleven missed household waste collections and one missed recycling collection in 2022.
12. 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. The records also suggest the Council also missed other collections.
13. For example, Ms X reported a missed collection on 9 March 2022, which the Council closed on 21 March 2022. It is unclear why, if the Council made the next scheduled collection on 15 March 2022, it did not close the report that day. Similarly, Ms X reported missed collections on 30 March and 6 April 2022, which the Council closed on 7 April and 19 April 2022 respectively. If the Council made an additional collection on 7 April 2022 it could have closed both reports that day. Alternatively, it could have closed the second report on 12 April 2022, the next scheduled collection day.
14. There are further inconsistencies in the more recent records. Ms X reported a missed collection on 7 September 2022, which the Council closed on 14 September 2022. However Ms X also reported the collection scheduled for 14 September 2022 as missed and the Council closed this report on 22 September 2022. If the Council had made the collection scheduled for 14 September 2022 Ms X would not have needed to report it as missed. Alternatively if the Council had returned to make the missed collection later that day, it could have closed both reports that day.
15. Ms X made further formal complaints in March and April 2022 as her household waste and garden waste were still not being collected as scheduled. In late April 2022 she complained her household waste had not been collected for a number of weeks, despite reporting missed collections. Ms X said this meant her bin was left blocking her path and she was unable to get past in her wheelchair. She asked the Council to look into the problem and ensure her bin was emptied each week.
16. The Council apologised and said it had added Ms X to the depot manager’s monitoring list for the next six weeks. In a further response it again apologised for the continued poor service and confirmed it had spoken with the crew. The Council also noted Ms X had not reported any further missed collections.
17. Ms X was not satisfied with the Council’s response and in June 2022 asked for her complaint to be reviewed. She noted her household waste had not been collected on 10, 17 or 31 May or 7 June 2022 even though the Council was supposed to be monitoring her collections. The Council had also missed a recycling collection.
18. Ms X complained about a further missed collection in August 2022. There is no record the Council reviewed or responded to Ms X’s complaint.
19. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Ms X has assisted collection status.
20. While the Council notes the assisted recycling collections do not appear to be a problem, it acknowledges there have been a significant number of missed assisted refuse collections. It notes there is not a dedicated sack round for Ms X’s street and the sacks should be collected by the crew that empties the bins.
21. The Council states there has been some misunderstanding/ miscommunication as the refuse crew were under the misapprehension there was a separate sack collection for Ms X’s street. The depot manager has reminded crews to collect the sacks. It has also resumed monitoring of Ms X’s collections for October and November 2022.

Analysis

22. It is clear from the Council’s records and the Council accepts it has repeatedly failed to collect Ms X’s household waste. These failings in the assisted collection service amount to fault.
23. The Council states Mr X has reported a total of eleven missed household waste collections in 2022, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Ms X’s complaints refer to consecutive missed collections which are not included in the Council’s list of missed collections.
24. 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 waste. It is concerning that the Council appears to have closed the reports of missed collections when it had not collected the waste.
25. It is also disappointing that the missed collections continued despite the Council monitoring Ms X’s collections. The records for the previous monitoring period suggest that the collections were all correctly made. However Ms X told the Council the first four collections were missed. This raises questions regarding the effectiveness of the Council’s system of monitoring. I would expect the current period of monitoring to ensure the assisted collection service improves.
26. The Council has confirmed Ms X is registered for assisted collections and this should be recorded on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and in the crew packs. It is therefore unclear why Ms X’s waste is routinely missed when the rest of the street are collected. Ms X is not the only property to have sack collections. She states her side of the street are all sack collections as there is no room to store wheelie bins.
27. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council has responded to Ms X’s complaints. The Council’s responses do not offer any explanation for the missed collections. The Council only appears to have identified the crew’s misunderstanding regarding sack collections as part of its response to the Ombudsman. Had the Council properly investigated Ms X’s complaint at the outset it could have resolved this matter much sooner.
28. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Mrs X a significant injustice. Ms X has had to rely on family, her carers and cleaner to move her uncollected waste from her path so that she is able to leave her home. She has experienced frustration and disappointment that despite her complaints and reporting of problems the waste is still not routinely collected. Ms X has also been put to unnecessary time and trouble in pursuing this matter.

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Agreed action

29. The Council has agreed to apologise to Ms X and pay her £300 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste collections has caused.
30. The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

31. The Council’s repeated failings in the assisted collection service provided to Ms X are fault. This fault has caused Ms X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman