Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to regularly collect waste from his address, did not deal with fly tipping and did not answer his complaints. We find the Council at fault for failing to ensure Mr X’s bins were collected as they should have been and for delays and inaccuracies when responding to his complaint, causing uncertainty and inconvenience. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to recognise the injustice, and act to prevent recurrence.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to regularly collect waste from his address, has not dealt with fly tipping, and has not fully answered his complaints. Mr X says this had led to hazards, pests, and a lack of access.

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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 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)
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
5. 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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What I have and have not investigated

6. Mr X brought his complaint to the Ombudsman in January 2024, meaning any complaint about events that took place prior to January 2023 has been raised late. I have seen no good reason to look back further than January 2023.
7. We cannot usually investigate complaints unless we are satisfied the Council has had a chance to look into them first. This includes events that are linked to or ongoing from the complaint that has been brought to us.
8. The Council gave Mr X its final response to his complaint in July 2024 meaning if Mr X wants us to investigate anything that has happened since that time, he would first need to raise a new complaint with the Council and give it an opportunity to respond.
9. I have investigated Mr X’s complaint as set out in paragraph one, above, but I have limited my investigation to events that took place between January 2023 and July 2024. Any reference below to events that took place outside of these times is for reference only.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
11. Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

12. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the bins or boxes people use.
13. The Council publishes its waste collection days on its website.

What happened

14. I have summarised below some key events leading to Mr X’s complaint. While I have considered everything submitted, this is not intended to be a detailed account of what took place.
15. Mr X lives in a housing estate in the Council’s area. Mr X says for several years he has experienced issues with intermittent collection of his bins.
16. Mr X has told us he made five reports of missed collections in May 2023, five in June 2023, and six in July 2023.
17. Mr X complained to the Council in July 2023 saying he had experienced issues with his bin collections for several years which had not been resolved. Mr X said bins were frequently not collected which created hazards and the Council had failed to respond to his reports.
18. The Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in August 2023. The Council said it was aware there was a historical issue with bin collection but believed this had now been resolved as it had not received any reports of missed collections for more than a month. It explained it had put measures in place to ensure collections went ahead and site visits had not flagged any issues.
19. Mr X has told us he then reported seven missed collections in August 2023.
20. Mr X asked the Council to reconsider his complaint in September 2023 as he felt its response was incorrect. Mr X provided days when he reported missed collections and provided photographs to show bins overflowing following these. Mr X explained the reports he had made were not the only missed collections and he had never witnessed a site visit from the Council taking place. Mr X explained he also felt fly tipping by neighbouring estates was causing the build-up of rubbish in his own estate’s bins. Mr X asked the Council to apologise, provide an action plan to review the issue with the bins, and provide a personally accountable point of contact for future issues.
21. As he had not received a response to his complaint, Mr X chased the Council in October 2023.
22. Mr X has provided evidence to show he reported three missed collections in October 2023, five in November 2023, and one in December 2023.
23. As the Council had not responded to his complaint, Mr X brought it to the Ombudsman in January 2024. We asked the Council to provide its final response to Mr X’s complaint before we started our investigation.
24. Mr X has provided evidence to show he reported a missed collection in January 2024, four in March 2024, three in April 2024, ten in May 2024, and seven in June 2024.
25. The Council provided its final response to Mr X’s complaint in June 2024, it apologised for the delay in responding and explained this was down to staffing issues. The Council said there had been intermittent issues with collecting Mr X’s bins due to irresponsible parking obstructing access for the waste crew, but it believed this had now been resolved. The Council said it regularly monitored the streets to deal with fly tipping but in most cases it could only clear the waste as it is difficult to identify who is responsible. The Council said it would monitor Mr X’s collections for the next 12 weeks to ensure they took place as scheduled.
26. Mr X disagreed with the Council’s response to his complaint. Mr X said the Council’s initial response was incorrect in saying it had not received reports of missed collections and its most recent response failed to resolve his complaint as he had asked for.
27. In response to our enquiries the Council explained it received multiple reports of non-collection due to obstructed access to the bins, however it dealt with these as soon as unobstructed access was established. The Council has said it is currently working on rolling out traffic management orders to regulate the parking that has affected Mr X’s bin collections. The Council also explained that a second access route to Mr X’s estate that was previously used to collect his bins has now been covered by a busy cycle superhighway which it would not be possible for the waste collection crew to safely cross.

Analysis

28. The Council failed to collect Mr X’s bins on the scheduled day repeatedly throughout the timeline I have investigated. While the Council has explained these missed collections were the result of obstructed access, ultimately it failed to complete many collections in line with its published schedule and this is fault. It meant Mr X had to go to the inconvenience of repeatedly reporting the issue which caused him avoidable frustration. This is injustice.
29. While I appreciate the obstructions were beyond the Council’s control, the evidence shows it was aware this was a consistent issue which prevented it from carrying out its duties under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. I have seen no evidence the Council attempted to take action to address this throughout the timeline I have investigated or put measures in place to prevent the issue recurring. This is poor practice and amounts to fault. As a consequence, the issue persisted and Mr X had the continued inconvenience of reporting it to the Council, which is injustice.
30. Mr X has also said the Council failed to deal with fly tipping which he suspects has come from neighbouring housing estates. However, I have not seen any evidence of fly tipping being reported to the Council and not being dealt with. I do not find the Council at fault for failing to deal with fly tipping in the area.
31. Mr X first complained to the Council in July 2023. The Council responded promptly, but Mr X questioned the accuracy of its reply and asked it to reconsider in September 2023. It then took the Council a further eight months to provide its final complaint response to Mr X, and only after the Ombudsman asked it to. This is a considerable delay, which amounts to fault and meant Mr X was put to more time and trouble in pursuing his complaint than he would have been had the Council responded promptly, which is injustice.
32. In its original complaint response to Mr X, the Council said it had not received any reports of missed collections in over a month and it had put measures in place to ensure collections were made so it was satisfied the issue had been resolved. This is incorrect as Mr X had made several reports in the previous month. The Council also did not give any real explanation as to what measures it had put in place to ensure collections were made going forward. This inaccuracy is fault and caused uncertainty for Mr X, which is injustice.

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Action

33. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault identified above, the Council has agreed to carry out the following actions:
34. Within one month of the date of this decision:
• Provide Mr X with a written apology for the failure to ensure his bins were collected as they should have been and for the delays and inaccuracies in its complaint handling. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Make a symbolic payment of £150 to Mr X to reflect the avoidable frustration, inconvenience, time and trouble caused to him by the faults identified.
35. Within three months:
• Complete eight weeks of monitoring to ensure Mr X’s bin collections are taking place as scheduled and provide the Ombudsman with its record of monitoring. This should include a record showing the dates of any collections, reasons for any missed collections, and actions to reschedule missed collections where necessary. If these records show repeated missed collections, the Council should also provide a forward plan it intends to put in place to rectify the issues it has identified.
36. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

37. I find the Council at fault for failing to ensure Mr X’s bins were collected regularly and for issues with its complaint handling, causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice, and I have completed my investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman