Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s missed or delayed bin collections at the block of flats where she lives, it allowing others to leave their waste at the flats’ bin area, and its delay in dealing with her complaint. There is not enough significant personal injustice caused to Ms X to warrant an investigation. Further investigation would not achieve a different outcome from the apology the Council has provided. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council regarding the storage arrangements for the property’s bins, nor sufficient personal injustice caused, to justify an investigation. We do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issue which gave rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Ms X lives in a block of over 50 flats which use communal bins. She complains the Council:
1. has missed waste and recycling collections;
2. has allowed others who do not live in the flats to leave their waste at the flats;
3. delayed in dealing with her complaint.
2. Ms X says the bins have been overloaded. She says it does not feel nice to live in a property with large piles of recycling waste next to the entrance. Ms X says rodents have been moving rubbish around and it attracts anti-social behaviour.
3. Ms X wants the Council to collect the waste on time. She says residents have asked the building’s estate management firm to install lockable bin storage, so only the building’s residents can use it.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information from Ms X and the Council and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The core issue giving rise to Ms X’s complaint is the bin service. Ms X’s first complaint to the Council reports at least three missed collections in or before August 2023. The Council says its records show three collections in December 2023 were delayed. The scheduled collection days were missed but the bins were emptied later, and before the next scheduled collection. Officers say there have been no reported missed collections in January 2024. The Council has apologised for the bin collection problems and the stress and inconvenience it would have caused.
7. We recognise the bin service issues will have caused some annoyance and inconvenience to Ms X and to other residents. But the issues are isolated and were short‑term. There is insufficient significant personal injustice caused to Ms X by the bin collection issues to warrant us investigating.
8. The Council’s apology for the previous problems with the bin service and their impact is also the remedy we would have sought here had we investigated. There is no different outcome an investigation would now achieve.
9. If any bin collection service problems arise in future, Ms X or her neighbours should report these to the Council. If the collection problems persist, particularly if they happen over many consecutive collections, she may wish to complain to the Council again.
10. Ms X also complains about the arrangements in place for the flats’ bin area. Ms X and some of her neighbours believe other people who are not residents of the flats have been told by the Council to use their bins or leave rubbish near them. The Council says it would not tell non‑residents to dispose of their waste at Ms X’s flats’ bin area. We note Ms X wants the bins to be secured to prevent her concern about non-residents using them. But it is the role of the building’s management firm to make arrangements to prevent others from misusing the bins. The location of the bin storage and how bins are secured are matters for the flats’ estate management agent to decide, not the Council. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council on this issue to justify an investigation. Even if the Council did have a role in the bin storage arrangements, there is insufficient personal injustice caused by the matter to justify us investigating.
11. Ms X complains about delay in the Council’s complaint process. We do not investigate councils’ internal complaint-handling in isolation where we are not investigating the core issues which gave rise to the complaint. It is not a good use of our resources to do so. That limitation applies here so we will not investigate this part of the complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because:
• there is insufficient significant personal injustice caused by the matters complained of to warrant us investigating; and
• there is no different outcome investigation would achieve; and
• there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council regarding the storage arrangements for the property’s bins, nor sufficient personal injustice caused, to justify an investigation; and
• we do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issue giving rise to the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman