Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s waste collection service and how it handled his complaint. Investigation of the incidents between January and October 2022 would not achieve a different outcome. There is not enough personal injustice caused to him by the bin services to justify us investigating. We do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about problems with the Council’s bin collection service, after a previous complaint on similar matters which we decided in January 2022. He complains the Council:
1. has missed bin collections, including one month where no collection was made;
2. introduced a new recycling system without telling him or providing new waste receptacles;
3. did not take his recycling because he had not complied with the new system, when he did not have the new containers;
4. failed to explain how it intends to fix the problems;
5. failed to comply with its own complaints handling process and policy.
2. Mr X says he has had to deal with the uncollected waste himself and has spent time and been caused trouble by having to report the missed collections and complaining. He wants the Council to provide him and other residents with the right receptacles to use the new recycling system, resolve the problems with waste collections and compensate him and 12,000 other households affected by the new recycling system.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or
• 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

4. I considered information from Mr X and the Council, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code. I also asked Mr X about his experiences of the bin service since 3 October 2022.

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My assessment

5. Mr X complains of waste collection problems between January and November 2022. From January to the beginning of October, the Council was ending its contracted scheme. The Council brought its refuse services in-house on 3 October 2022. It also decided to stop free garden waste collections by the end of October and make it a paid-for subscription service in 2023.
6. Our decision on Mr X’s previous complaint set our expectation that the Council would focus on addressing the underlying faults identified in its refuse service. We said we would not anticipate conducting further investigations into the same issue, unless the Council failed to address the concerns identified. We consider the nine months from the January 2022 decision was an appropriate time to allow the Council to change its services. It would not be realistic to expect the services to be problem-free during those nine transitional months, given the amount of work involved.
7. We asked Mr X whether he had experienced waste collection issues since 3 October 2022, to determine whether the problems raised in this complaint were continuing after the introduction of the in-house service. Mr X’s response did not mention any further problems with the recycling waste service which had been the focus of his original complaint. This indicates the issues raised with this part of the service have been resolved by the Council’s service changes. Investigation of incidents which occurred in the services’ transition period from January to October 2022 would not lead to a different outcome so we will not investigate them now. Furthermore, there is not sufficient personal injustice caused by those incidents to warrant investigation. We recognise the services during the transition period caused inconvenience to Mr X. But the level of injustice caused to him while the Council changed its waste collection systems does not justify us investigating them now.
8. Mr X also says the Council has missed two garden waste collections since 3 October and not returned to complete them. On the first occasion, he took the waste to the tip. Mr X says the second missed collection was his final one before the end of the free garden waste collections, so his garden bin is full with no further collections due. We recognise Mr X has been inconvenienced by these missed garden waste collections and having to dispose of waste himself. But the level of injustice caused to him is not significant enough to justify an investigation.
9. Mr X has complained about the Council’s complaint-handling. We do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling in isolation where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the complaint. It is not a good use of our resources to do so. That limitation applies here so we will not investigate this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• investigation of the incidents between January and October 2022 would not achieve a different outcome;
• there is not enough personal injustice caused to him to warrant us investigating; and
• we do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling processes where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to a complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman