Summary: Mr X complained that although his father, Mr Y should receive an assisted collection service the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste as scheduled. The failings in the assisted collections service the Council has provided to Mr Y are fault. This fault has caused Mr Y an injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complained that although his father should receive an assisted collection service the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste as scheduled.
2. As Mr X’s father is unable to dispose of the uncollected waste himself he has to store the refuse bags in his house and garden until Mr X is able to visit and assist him. This accumulation of waste is unsightly and attracts rats, which has led to complaints from his neighbours.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future 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. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• Mr X and the Council 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

Refuse and recycling collections

6. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
7. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
8. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
9. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.

What happened here

10. In the summer of 2022 Mr X contacted the Council to arrange for a replacement bin to be delivered to his father, Mr Y. He also asked the Council to provide assisted collections. The Council agreed to assisted collections from Mr Y’s front garden.
11. Mr X contacted the Council again in May 2023 to complain that the collection crews did not empty Mr Y’s bin from the front garden. As a result, although it was a struggle, Mr Y had therefore started to move his bin outside his front gate to ensure the waste was collected. Mr X told the Council the bin had been stolen and that he had been disposing of Mr Y’s waste for the last couple of weeks.
12. He asked the Council to provide a replacement bin, free of charge. He asserted that as the bin was only on the street because the Council failed to provide the agreed assisted collection service, Mr Y should not have to pay for a replacement bin. Mr X also noted that a customer service advisor had advised Mr Y to leave his rubbish in black sacks on the front garden for collection until he received the replacement bin.
13. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in early June 2023. It confirmed it had ordered a replacement bin, which would arrive in about six weeks, and that as a gesture of goodwill it would waive the fee. The Council also confirmed it had spoken to the depot regarding Mr Y’s assisted collections and arranged for the crew to collect black bin bags from Mr Y’s front garden until the bin arrived.
14. However, the Council missed Mr Y’s next scheduled collection, two days later. Mr X contacted the Council to advise the crew had not collected the black bin bags Mr Y had left in his front garden and asked it to collect them as soon as possible. As the Council did not respond Mr X telephoned the Council the following week to request that the bags were collected as they were attracting rats. Mr X advised the Council he could not keep travelling to Mr Y’s property to remove the bin bags.
15. The Council’s records show Mr X contacted the Council again the following week to report a further missed collection. At the end of June 2023 the Council again reminded the depot that Mr Y should receive assisted collections and to collect bin bags from his front garden until he received a replacement bin.
16. Mr X reported further missed collections in July 2023. On 24 July 2023 he complained that nothing had changed and Mr Y was still not receiving an assisted collection service. As the sacks were still not being collected he was having to dispose of them for Mr Y as there was now a problem with rats in the front garden.
17. The records show the Council asked the depot to speak with the crew and remind them to collect the bin bags. The depot confirmed the sacks crew had been advised to collect Mr Y’s waste until a bin had been delivered. It also confirmed the replacement bin order had been rejected by the stores department as the replacement had to be paid for before it could be delivered.
18. The Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint and responded on 10 August 2023. It apologised for any inconvenience caused by the missed collections and confirmed the matter had been escalated to the depot management. They had again reminded the crew of Mr Y’s assisted collections from his front garden and asked them to collect the bin bags until he received a replacement bin.
19. In addition the Council confirmed it had ordered a replacement bin at no charge. Once Mr Y had the bin, the collection crew would collect it from his front garden and return it to the garden when empty.
20. This did not resolve the problem and in September 2023 Mr X asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. He said the Council was still missing collections and the black bags of waste had mounted up on Mr Y’s front garden. This had resulted in rats on several occasions and complaints from Mr Y’s neighbours. Mr X said Mr Y now kept the black bags in his hallway until Mr X visits and disposes of the waste for him.
21. In response to my enquiries the Council says there are two main ways it notifies collection crews of assisted collections on their routes. Firstly, assisted collections are shown on the crew’s tablets, and secondly, in case of technical issues with the tablet, the depot produces a hard copy of the assisted collection list which it gives to each crew.
22. In addition, the Council says it monitors missed collections in several ways. Missed collections either noted by the crew or reported by residents are added to the depot’s missed collection worksheet to ensure the missed bin is collected by the next collection date. The Council says that if multiple missed collections happen over a short period of time officers inform the depot managers who will speak to the crew to find the root of the problem and if necessary assess the property.
23. Where there is a recurring known issue with missed collections the property is placed on the depot’s monitoring list. Managers then monitor the property to ensure collections are not missed, and monitoring stops when collections are being carried out successfully.
24. The Council has confirmed Mr Y is registered for assisted collections. It says it has sent multiple reminders to the collections crew that Mr Y should receive an assisted collection, particularly when the main crew in unavailable and the collections are made by agency workers. The Council says it has also recently started conducting random checks after collections to see if the bin has been collected without issue.
25. The Council says there are a number of reasons for the delay in resolving the issues with Mr Y’s assisted collection service. It notes that for assisted collections the bins must be visible from the road. This requires Mr Y to present his bins in his front garden but prior to May 2023 Mr Y presented his bins at the rear of his property, where his neighbours also present their bins.
26. There were also delays in ordering a replacement bin. The Council says officers did not follow proper procedure when requesting a replacement bin in May 2023 so the request was initially denied. This was exacerbated by a city-wide delay in ordering and delivering bins.
27. In addition, there was a delay in the Council informing the depot that Mr Y needed sack collections until the new bin was delivered. This meant the crews were initially unaware they should be collecting the sacks from Mr Y’s front garden.
28. The Council says there was also confusion when Mr Y presented his bin in front of his garden gate as the crew were then uncertain whether Mr Y still needed assisted collections. The Council notes that its website says that residents with assisted collections do not need to move their bins to the kerbside. If residents or their neighbours present the bins at the kerbside the collection crew will not return the bins to the storage point after collection.
29. The Council says that since Mr Y has been leaving his bin in the front garden, and following multiple reminders to the crew, there have been no further reports of missed collections.
30. In addition, on 24 January 2024 the Council added Mr Y’s bin to its monitoring list for eight weeks to ensure the weekly assisted collections are carried out correctly. However Mr X says that by the middle of February 2024 the Council has only emptied Mr Y’s bin once.
31. Where collections continue to be missed we would expect the Council to extend the monitoring period to ensure that the problem is resolved and Mr Y receives an effective assisted collection service. The monitoring should end on 13 March 2024 but the Council has agreed to extend the monitoring period.

Analysis

32. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr Y’s household waste. These failings in the assisted collection service amount to fault.
33. According to the Council’s records Mr X reported five missed collections between June and September 2023, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. The Council has not provided details of any reports of missed collections before June 2023, but the failure to make assisted collections is what prompted Mr Y to present his bin kerbside until his bin was stolen in May 2023. This suggests there were problems with the assisted collection service prior to June 2023.
34. The Council has provided recordings of some of Mr X’s telephone calls. These calls refer to missed collections not included in the Council’s log. The complaint correspondence also refers to missed collections not included in the log.
35. I also note it appears from Mr X’s correspondence and the recordings of his telephone calls to the Council that he believes Mr Y’s household waste is collected fortnightly. However, Mr Y’s household waste is scheduled to be collected weekly. This suggests that when Mr X reports that the waste has still not been collected since the last missed collection a fortnight earlier, an additional weekly collection has also been missed.
36. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections.
37. The Council has procedures in place to ensure the collection crews are aware of assisted collections on their route. We would therefore expect these collections to be made without issue.
38. In this instance however, a series of delays and errors by the Council meant Mr Y did not receive the expected assisted collection service over an extended period. This led to an accumulation of black bin bags in Mr Y’s front garden which attracted rats and caused difficulties between Mr Y and his neighbours. As Mr Y was unable to dispose of the uncollected waste himself, he had to rely on Mr X disposing of it when he visited.
39. Mr X and Mr Y have also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

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Agreed action

40. The Council has agreed to:
• apologise to Mr X and Mr Y for the failings in the assisted collection service;
• pay Mr Y £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste collections has caused.
• extend the period monitoring for Mr X’s household waste collections for an additional four weeks, so that it continues until 10 April 2024, to ensure the assisted collections are carried out properly and the bins are returned to the collection point.
41. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of the final decision on this complaint and provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

42. The failings in the assisted collections service the Council has provided to Mr Y are fault. This fault has caused Mr Y an injustice.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman