Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s new charge for collection of garden and food waste, it expecting people who do not subscribe to store the unused bin or return it to the Council themselves, it not making arrangements for people who could not return their bin, and it not properly replying to his complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process to introduce the bin charge to warrant investigation. There is insufficient significant personal injustice to Mr X from the bin charge or council tax issues, or the Council’s decisions on the retention and collection of bins, to justify investigation. We do not investigate council complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council:
1. has introduced a new separate annual charge for garden and food waste collections which he considers is illegal;
2. is incorrectly expecting people not subscribing to the new scheme to keep the unused bin on their property and take responsibility for it;
3. is unreasonably not collecting the unused bins from people’s properties or expecting them to return them to the Council if they want to do so;
4. failed to make provision for people who are unable to return an unused bin;
5. failed to properly reply to his complaint.
2. Mr X is concerned the bin charge will lead to more fly-tipping and a reduction in the amount of food waste which is recycled. He says the charge is being introduced with no consideration of the current cost of living. Mr X says the charge has been introduced during the current council tax year so amounts to an extra tax in that year. Mr X wants the Council to:
• cancel the bin charge;
• collect all redundant bins and tell residents they will do so;
• offer council tax refunds for the part of the council tax period during which the charge has been in place.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• 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), as amended, section 34(B))

4. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information from Mr X, the Council’s website and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The issue at the core of Mr X’s complaint is the Council’s decision to introduce the annual charge for garden and food waste collections (‘the charge’). The Council considered then adopted the policy introducing the charge in 2023. There is no legal duty on councils to collect such waste. Previous collections made as part of other bin collection schemes were discretionary services councils chose to provide. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process introducing the charge to warrant us investigating. We recognise Mr X disagrees with the new charge introduced by the policy change. But it is not fault for a council to properly adopt a policy with which someone disagrees.
7. Mr X says he considers the Council’s decision to introduce the charge to be illegal. Should he remain of that view, this would be a matter for the police and the courts. We do not make decisions on legal matters. Mr X may wish to take independent legal advice if he decides to pursue this allegation.
8. We note Mr X considers the Council should make council tax refunds to people because of the introduction of the bin charge within an ongoing tax year. Council tax is a levy based on property value. The introduction of the charge has no bearing on the council tax due. Council tax is not a charge for the delivery of a specific service, such as a garden waste service. In any event, even if there were Council fault on this issue, the amount of council tax collected and used on garden waste collections since the start of the chargeable scheme in January 2024 is a negligible sum. It does not amount to a significant personal injustice to Mr X which warrants an investigation.
9. Mr X considers it is wrong for the Council to require people not subscribing to the new chargeable garden waste scheme to keep the unused bin on their properties and take responsibility for it. He also says it is wrong that the Council is not collecting the unused bins from people’s properties or is expecting them to return them to the Council, if they want to. The Council’s position is the bins are assigned to properties and should remain there if current residents decide to subscribe, or if future residents at the property wish to subscribe. Even if the Council’s approach on these matters is fault, we will not investigate. Mr X may be annoyed that he has to either retain the bin or return it himself. But this is not a significant personal injustice to Mr X which would warrant us investigating.
10. Mr X says the Council has made no arrangements for people who could not return their own bin, such as disabled people. But the Council has said residents may keep their unused bin so there is no requirement for them to return them and they would only need to do so if they choose to. Mr X does not say he is disabled but raises the matter on behalf of others who are. We cannot take account of other people’s injustice as part of Mr X’s complaint. Even if the Council was at fault on this issue, it does not cause him sufficient significant injustice to warrant us investigating it.
11. Mr X says the Council failed to properly reply to his complaint. We do not investigate councils’ complaint-handling processes in isolation where we are not investigating the 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 Mr X’s complaint because:
• there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making process to introduce the bin charge to warrant an investigation; and
• the bin charge, the Council’s decisions on the retention and collection of unused bins, and the use of council tax funds cause insufficient significant personal injustice to him to justify us investigating; and
• we do not investigate council complaint-handling where we are not investigating the core issues giving rise to the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman