Summary: Ms X complained the Council has missed bin collections. The Council’s failure to routinely provide bin collections and delay in providing a solution is fault which has caused Ms X an injustice.

The complaint

1. Ms X lives in a property which shares a large communal bin with other tenants. Ms X complained the Council regularly failed to collect the property’s general waste bin, even after the Council identified the fault. Ms X continues to report the missed bin collection most weeks, causing frustration. On occasion, Ms X has to store her rubbish in her flat, resulting in bad smells.

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 following:
• The complaint and the documents provided by the complainant.
• Documents provided by the Council and its comments in response to my enquiries.
• The Environmental Protection Act 1990.
5. Ms X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered their comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

6. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
7. The Councils website shows Ms X’s property should receive weekly bin collections. Recycling and refuse are emptied on alternate weeks.
8. The Councils website shows there are currently no reported delays or changes to bin collections.

What happened

9. I have summarised below the key events; this is not intended to be a detailed account.
10. Ms X lives in a flat within a large building with several other tenants. The tenants have a shared bin for refuse.
11. The online schedule shows the Council collects the refuse bin every other week. A contractor carries out the service on behalf of the Council.
12. Ms X says there have been several instances of non-collection of waste. Ms X says when the Council does not collect the bins, they become full and she does not have anywhere to put her rubbish. Ms X sometimes has to keep her rubbish in her flat, resulting in bad smells.
13. Ms X complained to the Council in July 2022.
14. In an internal Council email about Ms X’s stage one complaint, the waste vehicle driver reported his supervisor had allocated him a 50/50 capacity waste vehicle which was not the correct size to empty Ms X’s bin. In response, the manager said they would speak to the supervisor.
15. Ms X received a stage one response in August 2022. In September 2022, Ms X emailed the Council to say nothing had changed since the stage one complaint response. She said the waste operatives had not collected her bin. The Council progressed her complaint to stage two.
16. The Council issued a stage two response in September 2022. It said it reviewed the matter and discussed the complaint with the team. It apologised for the service Ms X received and recognised the frustration caused. It said it raised the matter with its contractor. In future, the collection crew would take photos of the emptied bin and the manager was to monitor the situation.
17. Ms X said things did not improve. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in October 2022.
18. Ms X said every time the Council failed to collect the bin, she reported it to the Council using the online service. She did not know the exact number of times this happened.
19. In response to my enquiries, the Council provided records of missed bin collections for the second half of 2022. The records show the Council failed to collect Ms X’s bin at the end of June, middle of July, early August, beginning of October and the middle of November.
20. After receiving Ms X’s complaint, the Council considered the reason for the contractor’s failure to empty the bins and considered ways to address this.
21. In response to my enquiries, the Council explained the original shared bin at Ms X’s property was large, measuring 660 litres. It could only be emptied by a 70/30 capacity waste vehicle. On occasions, a 50/50 capacity waste vehicle was used on Ms X’s collection route. The 50/50 capacity waste vehicle can only lift and empty small bins up to a capacity of 360 litre capacity. It could not empty Ms X’s shared bin of 660 litre. This explains why Ms X’s bin was not emptied.
22. Towards the end of December, the Council replaced the large communal bin with two smaller bins. The smaller bins could be emptied by either the 50/50 or the 70/30 waste vehicle. It does not matter which waste vehicle was allocated to the route to empty the bin at Ms X’s property. The Council said it does ‘…not anticipate there being any further missed collections at the property…’.
23. The Council also said it has added the bin to the contractor’s hot spot list which is discussed in weekly meetings. The crew are still to take photos of the emptied bins and the manager is monitoring the situation (as per the solution provided in the stage two complaint response).
24. The Council said there has been no reported missed bin collections since making these changes.

Analysis

25. In its stage two response, the Council apologised for the waste collection service Ms X received and recognised the frustration caused. The Council’s failure to provide waste collection service is fault.
26. During its internal complaints process, the contractor told the Council it periodically used a 50/50 vehicle on Ms X’s collection route which could not collect the large waste bin at Ms X’s property. The contracts manager said they would raise this with the supervisors. The Council took positive steps to solve the issue which it hoped would resolve the matter. It did not. The wrong size vehicles were still occasionally allocated to the route which meant the bin could not be emptied. The solution did not get to the root of the matter or solve the issue.
27. In its response to my enquiries, the Council said it explored other solutions. At the end of December, the Council installed two smaller bins which can be collected by any waste collection vehicle. This is a workable and suitable solution which should resolve the issue but one which the Council will have to keep under review. The Council has now taken action which has fixed the problem.
28. The Council was aware it had failed to collect the bin at Ms X’s property on several occasions after receiving missed bin reports from Ms X and her complaint. The Council knew the bin could not be collected by the vehicles which were periodically assigned to the collection route from July. It knew there was an issue but did not solve it until December, after Ms X had complained to the Ombudsman. It took the Council five months to provide a solution. The Council missed an opportunity to resolve the matter and continued to be at fault for missed collections.
29. The regular missed waste collections caused Ms X injustice. Ms X had to store waste inside her property as the outside bin was full, causing distress. Repeatedly reporting the missed collections put Ms X to avoidable time and trouble.
30. The Council failed to routinely provide waste collection services for Ms X and failed to put in place a solution once the fault had been identified. This led to the fault happening again. This is fault causing injustice to Ms X. The Council has now solved the issue by providing new smaller bins which can be collected by any waste collection vehicle, preventing any further injustice.

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Agreed actions

31. The Council has agreed to monitor the situation for two months to ensure the matter is resolved and provide a report to the Ombudsman at the end of this period.
32. Within four weeks of the final decision being issued, the Council agreed to pay Ms X £200 in recognition of the distress and time and trouble its failings caused.

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Final decision

33. I have completed my investigation. The Council is at fault for failing to routinely provide waste collection for Ms X and the delay in finding a workable solution, causing her injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman