Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to collect Ms X’s brown bin, and failing to communicate to Ms X that it was suspending the service. This caused her frustration and inconvenience. The Council has agreed to remedy Ms X’s injustice.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the council has persistently failed to collect her kitchen and garden waste (‘brown bin’) since October 2022.

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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. I have considered Ms X’s complaint.
5. I have also considered the Council’s response to Ms X and to my enquiries.
6. Ms X 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

Legislation

7. 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.
8. The law says that a council does not have to collect garden waste but it is a service it can choose to provide. It is allowed to make a charge and most councils do. The charge applies to everyone who chooses to use the service regardless of whether the leaves and other garden waste comes from trees and vegetation that do not belong to the resident (i.e all the leaves fall from street trees). If the person thinks the charge is excessive, or unfair, they do not have to use the service.
9. At the time of Ms X’s complaint, the Council’s practice was to make a weekly household waste and recycling collection and a fortnightly garden waste collection (including food waste).
10. The bins provided to most residents were:
• Green/grey bin – non-recyclable ‘residual waste’ (weekly)
• Blue bin – recyclable waste only (weekly)
• Brown bin – garden and food waste (fortnightly)

What happened

11. Ms X lives down a narrow cul-de-sac off a main road. Four properties including Ms X’s are located here. Ms X said although the cul-de-sac is too narrow for refuse vehicles, other types of waste are collected, it is just the brown bin that gets missed. She said that she has had to stop pruning her garden shrubs as her brown bin is full.
12. The Council explained that due to staff shortages, it had focused on the collection of residual (grey/green bin) and recyclable (blue) waste as this is a statutory duty. This explains why it is only the brown bin collection that Ms X reported problems with.
13. From 6 March 2023, the Council announced that residents should dispose of food waste into the green/grey bin (non-recyclable waste). This was in response to the frequent reports of an inconsistent and unreliable brown bin collection. The thought being that at least if there is no food waste in the brown bins, they won’t cause odour and attract pests if left unemptied.

My findings

14. The Council has been struggling to provide a reliable and consistent refuse collection service for the past three years. The Council said this was due to a number of factors including staff shortages, sickness, the size of the collection rounds, and vehicles blocking roads.
15. The Council has acknowledged that it is failing to provide an acceptable service to its residents. Although not a statutory duty, the residents had come to expect a regular collection of their garden and kitchen waste, and therefore the Council’s failure to provide this service was fault.
16. In addition, the poor communication to advise residents that the Council was suspending its brown bin collection, was fault. The Council relied on residents accessing the Council website to obtain this key information. The Council has now committed itself to the delivery of leaflets to every household when it makes changes to the refuse collection service.

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Agreed action

17. Within 4 weeks of my decision, the Council will:
1. Apologise to Ms X for failing to provide an adequate refuse collection service.
2. Pay Ms X £150 for the injustice she experienced from the missed collections.
3. Pay Ms X £50 in recognition of the time and trouble she has spent pursuing her complaint.
4. Write to Ms X to explain what service she should expect going forward i.e., weekly/fortnightly collection, kitchen waste in green/grey bin.
18. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.
19. For a period of three months after the final decision, the Council will:
1. monitor all Ms X’s waste collection and provide us with written evidence it has done so each month.

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Final decision

20. I have completed my investigation. The Council was at fault for failing to provide a reliable waste collection for Ms X. This caused Ms X frustration and inconvenience.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman