Summary: Miss X complains the Council has persistently failed to collect her garden waste, and failed to respond to her stage two complaint. We find fault with the Council for the missed collections and delayed complaint response, causing Miss X frustration and inconvenience. We have agreed remedies to ensure this does not continue.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains that her garden waste bin was not collected from November 2021 until April 2022. There were delays in the Council’s complaint response and she did not get any response to her stage two complaint, instead the Council signposted her to us.
2. The Council told Miss X she would get a refund for the last years costs in March, but she has not received it.
3. Miss X would like her garden waste collected as it should be, and her refund given to her as discussed with the Council.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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.
6. The Ombudsman’s view, based on caselaw, is that ‘service failure’ is an objective, factual question about what happened. A finding of service failure does not imply blame, intent or bad faith on the part of the council involved. There may be circumstances where we conclude service failure has occurred and caused an injustice to the complainant despite the best efforts of the council. This still amounts to fault and we may recommend a remedy for the injustice caused. (R (on the application of ER) v CLA (LGO) [2014] EWCA civ 1407)
7. 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

8. I have considered Miss X’s complaint and supporting information and have spoken to her about the complaint.
9. Miss 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

10. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area.
11. The Council’s practice is to make a weekly household waste and recycling collection and a fortnightly garden waste collection.
12. A missed collection can be reported in the Waste Services Portal or by telephone.
13. The garden waste service costs residents £55 per year with a one-off fee of £36 per bin.

Council complaint procedure

14. A complaint must be made by email or by post. The Customer Feedback Team will send an acknowledgement within two working days of receipt.
15. The relevant service manager will deal with the complaint and the Executive Support Unit will send out a response within ten working days.
16. If the complaint response is not satisfactory, the complainant can request a review within ten working days of the complaint response. This will be acknowledged within two working days.
17. The Head of Service or Director will look into the complaint and the Executive Support Unit will respond within twenty working days.
18. If the complainant is still not satisfied, the complaint comes to us.

What happened

19. Miss X made a complaint to the Council in January 2022 as her garden waste bin had not been collected since November 2021.
20. The Council sent an apology for the delayed response and said it will respond by 24 January 2022.
21. In February Miss X chased the Council as she had not had the response as promised.
22. The Council sent a stage one complaint response on 3 February saying it was aware of issues carrying out collections due to vans parked along the road by the building site. It said it would continue to attempt to collect the garden waste on the due collection day.
23. Miss X raised a stage two complaint on the 4 February saying her garden waste was not collected again. She said she drives in and out of her road often without any obstruction from vans or parked cars. Miss X said the Council promised a call back from a customer care assistant and this never happened.
24. Miss X got an acknowledgement for her stage two complaint on the 8 February. She chased for a response on the 15 March and on the 17 March the Council said a manager would call her.
25. On the 31 March, 13 July, 31 July and 11 August Miss X chased the Council for a refund which she says the Manager promised her in their telephone conversation on the 17 March.
26. On 22 August the Council emailed Miss X to say she should have received a response to her stage two complaint within 20 working days. “In lieu of this please see the contact details for the LGSCO.”
27. Miss X brought her complaint to us, saying she was angry she has spent so much of her time on the phone to the Council. She could not report the missed collections online, so every time a collection was missed, she had to call the Council.
28. Miss X says every time she reported a missed collection the Council said it would be collected, but it wasn’t.
29. Miss X is angry she has not had an apology. She said when she spoke to the manager in March there was no recognition of fault, and no apology was given. The manager said she would get a refund which never came.

Analysis

30. Miss X failed to have her garden waste collected on numerous occasions.
31. There was delay in the Council’s response to Miss X’s complaint. This is fault, causing Miss X frustration and the time and trouble of chasing it for a response.
32. In the response to our enquiries the Council said there were no reports of missed collections this year. However it also provided documents showing that collections were missed due to blocked roads, road closures and parked cars.
33. The Council said owing to workload and staff shortages it did not send a stage two complaint response to Miss X, and it has no recollection of offering a refund.
34. I find fault with the Council for the missed collections, the delay with the stage one complaint response, and the failure to give any stage two complaint response.
35. This caused Miss X considerable time and trouble in getting her garden waste bin collected, and bringing a complaint.
36. On the balance of probabilities I think it is likely that Miss X was offered a refund by the manager in their telephone conversation. The fact that there is no record of their conversation by the Council is also fault.
37. I acknowledge the Council had staff shortages and high workloads, so the failure to provide a second stage complaint response amounts to service failure.

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Recommended action

38. Within one month of the final decision the Council should:
• write to Miss X and apologise for the frustration, distress and time and trouble caused by the identified faults;
• refund Miss X £55 for the missed collections, as promised by the manager; and
• pay Miss X £100 in recognition of the time and trouble she has spent contacting the Council and pursuing this complaint.
39. Within two months of the final decision the Council should:
• monitor all Miss X’s collections for a further three months;
• ensure all relevant staff are aware of the complaint handling procedure and time frames for responding, and confirm how it will ensure that timescales are met in responding to complaints.
40. The Council should provide us with written evidence it has done so.

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Final decision

41. I find fault with the Council for the missed collections and delayed complaint response. I have suggested remedies for the injustice caused to Miss X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman