Summary: The Council was at fault for how it responded to Miss B’s reports of problems with her assisted bin collections. It has agreed to apologise and put a period of monitoring in place to ensure she receives an adequate service from now on.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Miss B, complains about how the Council’s contractor, Urbaser Ltd, carried out waste collections from her home.
2. Miss B says Urbaser failed to complete her assisted collections – which she receives because she is disabled – properly. She says the refuse collectors have repeatedly failed to return her bins to the agreed location, which causes her inconvenience, pain and distress if she tries to move them herself. She believes this behaviour is retaliation for an earlier complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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

5. I considered information from Miss B and the Council. Both had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What happened

6. Miss B made an earlier complaint to the Council about its waste collection service in 2022. The Council responded in November, and, as part of its response, confirmed that she would receive assisted collections from then on.
7. In early January 2023, Miss B emailed the Council’s waste collection team, saying her bin had been left on the street, despite her disability and her need for support.
8. The Council acknowledged Miss B’s email and said it had “escalated this to our contractors”. But there is no evidence of any action being taken and the Council says it can no longer access the email (because it regularly deletes emails due to how many it receives).
9. The week after, Miss B emailed the Council again. She said:

Again today … I have attached evidence of your waste team refusing to acknowledge my disability needs … the fact that I qualify for supported collection … is specifically being ignored by your team … this will be the 3rd week in a row.

10. The Council logged this email as a complaint, but then rejected the complaint because it was “about the same issue as the Stage Two [the previous November]”.
11. Miss B emailed the Ombudsman in April, saying her bins were not being returned to the agreed place. She said she had called the Council that day and someone in customer services had emailed the waste team on her behalf.
12. The Council says Miss B’s email was sent to the Ombudsman, not the Council. It has not commented on whether anyone in customer services spoke to Miss B.

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What I found

13. We would not expect a council to fix a problem with someone’s bin collections unless they report it first. The Council’s view is that Miss B has not reported problems with her assisted collections properly, or at all.
14. However, Miss B reported collection problems twice in January 2023. There is no evidence of how the Council dealt with the first report. And it refused to deal with the second report, saying it was about the same issues as had been dealt with the previous year – even though the report referred to ongoing issues and mentioned assisted collections, which had not been in place when Miss B made her previous complaint.
15. I do not have any evidence that Miss B reported a further collection problem by telephone in April. But she says she spoke to someone in customer services and the Council has not commented on whether this was or was not the case.
16. On balance, I consider the Council at fault for how it dealt with Miss B’s reports of problems with her assisted collections. There is either insufficient evidence that it dealt with them properly, or, in the case of her second report in January, a failure to consider alleged ongoing problems with what was, for her, a relatively new service.
17. The Council should now take action to ensure that it is delivering an adequate service to Miss B.

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Agreed actions

18. Within two weeks, the Council has agreed to:
• Apologise to Miss B for how it dealt with her reports of problems with her bin collections.
• Put in place a four-week period of monitoring to ensure that her assisted collection service is running adequately.
• Provide us with evidence it has completed these actions.

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Final decision

19. The Council was at fault for how it responded to Miss B’s reports of problems with her assisted bin collections.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman