Summary: Mr B complained about problems with his bin collections and the actions of the Council’s waste contractor. We have not found fault with the actions of the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr B complained that Manchester City Council (the Council) failed to collect his green bin on two occasions in October 2022, failed to admit it was at fault and has failed to respond to his correspondence regarding safety issues. This has caused Mr B frustration and inconvenience.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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. I have considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant, and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. Mr B and the organisation 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

5. Mr B has a medical condition which affects his ability to move his waste bins very far. The Council has agreed to return his blue bin (general waste) to his property.
6. In October 2022 the Council did not collect Mr B’s green bin (garden waste) on two occasions. Mr B reported the first missed collection, and it was collected the following day. Mr B sent two complaints to the Council: one about the failure to return his blue bin to his property and the second about the missed green bin collection. The Council missed Mr B’s green bin a second time in October. Mr B spoke to a supervisor and the bin was collected the later same day.
7. The Council’s waste contractor responded to the complaint about the blue bin collection. It apologised and said a supervisor spoke to each crew and issued a memo to ensure the bins are returned to the front of each property. It agreed to monitor the next collection, offered to visit Mr B and provided a direct number for him to call.
8. Mr B complained that the contractor had not responded to the missed green bin collections. He chased this up with the contractor and the Council several times in November.
9. The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint at stage two of its complaints procedure. It said it had checked the CCTV footage of the green bin collections from 20 October, 3 and 17 November 2022 and that all bins presented were collected. It explained that collections are sometimes missed due to staff absence, vehicle breakdown and human error.
10. In December 2022 Mr B complained about the complaint response and made a freedom of information request for the CCTV footage. He disputed that the bins were collected on 20 October 2022.
11. He also complained about unsafe practices by the waste contractor.
12. Mr B said his green bin was not emptied once in December due to the contents being frozen and was not returned to his house on a second occasion. In January 2023 the Council signposted Mr B to our office. Mr B complained again to the Council about some more occasions when the bins were not returned to his property. He also said his main complaint was about the disputed accounts about whether the green bins were collected on the two occasions in October.
13. The Council responded again to Mr B on 16 February 2023. It accepted there were further occasions when bins were not returned to his property. It apologised, said it would issue further reminders to the crews and given Mr B’s medical condition it would endeavour to ensure the bins were returned to Mr B’s property. For other householders without medical issues, it did not consider it was unreasonable for them to walk a short distance to collect the bin.
14. Mr B complained to us and said there had been further occasions when the blue bins were not returned to his property. We asked the Council to comment on this issue. It said it was satisfied that since the end of March 2023 all collections from Mr B’s property had been as agreed: the green bins had been collected and the blue bin returned to his property.
15. I asked Mr B to comment on this and tell me if he had experienced further problems. He said his main concern was the disputed account of the missed bin collections in October and his view that the bins were missed deliberately, He also repeated the safety concerns and his unanswered correspondence on this issue.

Analysis

16. I accept missed collections are annoying, frustrating and inconvenient. But mistakes can happen, and from time-to-time most people will have a missed collection, a lost bin or some other problem with their waste collection. We need to make sure we use public money efficiently, so we would not investigate complaints where there have been just a couple of missed collections or other one-off problems.
17. Mr B is most aggrieved by the missed collections in October 2022 and considers they were deliberately not collected. I note that one was collected the following day and the other later the same day. I do not consider these relatively short delays caused Mr B an injustice which warrants further investigation.
18. I consider the Council took appropriate steps to address the issue of the blue bins not being returned to Mr B’s property and acknowledged this had sometimes not happened. It spoke directly to the crews involved, issued a memo, monitored the next collections and offered to visit Mr B.
19. I am satisfied that since March 2023 there have been no further problems with the collections and I do not consider there is sufficient evidence of fault of a systemic problem causing injustice to Mr B to pursue an investigation.
20. I note Mr B has concerns about general safety issues with the Council’s waste contractor, but I do not consider these cause Mr B a direct injustice.

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Final decision

21. I have completed my investigation into this complaint as I am unable to find fault causing injustice in the actions of the Council towards Mr B.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman