Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a missed refuse collection and the Council’s handling of it. This is because the matter has not caused Mr X a significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about a missed refuse collection and the Council’s handling of it.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X contacted the Council when his refuse was not collected and requested a collection. Mr X says the Council told him twice that his refuse would be collected within the next few days, but this did not happen. Mr X complained to the Council. He said the Council lied when it said the refuse would be collected and it did not explain why it did not happen.
7. The Council upheld Mr X’s complaint. It acknowledged he had followed the correct procedure for reporting a missed collection and his missed bins should have been collected. It was unable to explain why the missed collection was not attended to here. It apologised to Mr X for the time, inconvenience and frustration the matter caused him. It said it found no evidence to support Mr X’s view that officers had lied to him as they had provided the correct information about its usual process.
8. Whilst I acknowledge Mr X remains dissatisfied with the Council’s final response to his complaint, there is no significant unremedied injustice to Mr X which is serious enough to merit an investigation by this office. We do not investigate every complaint we receive. We must focus our limited public resources on those complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the matter has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to merit an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman