Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled days or in a timely manner when collections are missed. And that the Council has failed to properly investigate his complaints or address his concerns. The Council repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling as scheduled is fault, as was the failure to properly consider and respond to his complaints. These faults have caused Mr X and injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled days or in a timely manner when collections are missed.
2. Mr X also complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his garden waste and delayed in refunding the fee for this service.
3. In addition Mr X complained the Council has failed to properly investigate his complaints or address his concerns.

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
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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How I considered this complaint

6. 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

7. 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.
8. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
9. In addition the Council runs a fortnightly garden waste collection service for 40 weeks between March and December. The Council charges a fee for this service and it is only available to customers who have subscribed for the service in advance. The terms and conditions for this service state the Council will consider a refund where it has failed to rectify a reported missed collection of garden waste on three consecutive cycles.
10. 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

11. Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling on the scheduled day since November 2023. He says the collection crew used to collect both the household and recycling waste in the same vehicle. The crew then began to only collect the household waste and the recycling did not get collected.
12. Mr X has reported 17 missed recycling collections since September 2023. The Council’s records show the reports are all closed as the Council has since made the missed collections. However Mr X’s own records show that several of the missed collections were not made. Some of which were consecutive missed collections leading to an accumulation of waste which Mr X had to take to the recycling centre.
13. Other residents in his street have also reported repeated missed collections to the Council since the start of the year.
14. The Council altered the collection schedule over the Christmas period and notified residents via its website of changes to collection days. Mr X’s collection scheduled for 28 December 2023 was moved to 2 January 2024. When the collection on 2 January 2024 collection was missed Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council.
15. The Council closed Mr X’s complaint the same day but there is no record it informed him. When Mr X checked his online Council account (BRUM account) and saw his complaint had been closed he contacted the Council again on 25 January 2023. He asked the Council to escalate his complaint to the next stage of the process.
16. Mr X complained his recycling had not been collected since 7 December 2023 and that the last time his recycling was collected on the scheduled date was 9 November 2023. Mr X also noted the Council had missed the collection scheduled for that day. He asked the Council to explain why his collections were not taking place and how it would resolve this and prevent it happening again.
17. The Council set up a new complaint about the recent missed collection. It also advised Mr X his initial complaint had been closed on receipt as it related to the collection schedule over the Christmas period. The Council noted the crew had collected Mr X’s recycling as 5:54 that morning.
18. Mr X asked the Council to close the second complaint and escalate his initial complaint to stage two of its complaints process. The Council advised Mr X the initial complaint could not be escalated as it was closed as a policy decision regarding Christmas collections it. It said its records showed the collections scheduled for 11 and 25 January 2024 were completed and asked Mr X to confirm whether the missed collections affected the whole street.
19. Mr X confirmed the whole street was affected. The collection crew took the household waste as scheduled but now left the recycling. He reiterated he did not consider this to be a Christmas issue as the problem started in November 2023 and was ongoing. Mr X asserted the Council should not have closed his initial complaint.
20. The Council wrote to Mr X on 14 February 2024 advising the missed collection had now been made and apologised for an inconvenience. Mr X acknowledged the most recent missed collection had now been made but he did not feel the core issue had been resolved. He asked for his complaint to be escalated to stage two of the process in order to address his requests for:
• an explanation for the missed collections;
• an explanation of the steps the Council had taken to prevent this happening again;
• an apology for the way his initial complaint was handled; and
• compensation for the inconvenience missed collections and the time taken to try and resolve the matter.
21. The Council confirmed it would refer the matter to the depot. However when Mr X checked his BRUM account on 23 February 2023 he saw his complaint had been closed. He contacted the Council again to question this and to report a further missed collection. The Council agreed to escalate his complaint to stage two.
22. On 25 March 2023 the Council wrote to Mr X setting out its response to his complaint. The Council explained it was experiencing levels of disruption with its recycling collections. This had impacted on collections being made as scheduled on Mr X’s street. The Council noted there had been a further missed collection on 21 March 2024 and that this would be collected as part of planned catch up work.
23. The Council also confirmed a manager had been made aware of the poor service Mr X had received and would ensure collections were not missed going forward. It anticipated this would improve the service.
24. Mr X contacted the Council again on 4 April 2024 as his recycling had not been collected as scheduled that day. He was concerned that without knowing why his collections were missed the Council would be unable to resolve the issue. He also noted that although the Council has agreed to refund his garden waste fee he had yet to receive this. The Council apologise that Mr X had not received the refund for the garden waste service and advised a number of cheques were awaiting approval. It also confirmed it had escalated his concerns about further missed collections to the depot manager.
25. As Mr X remained dissatisfied with the Council’s actions and the missed collections continued, he asked the Ombudsman to investigate his concerns. In early May 2024 Mr X said the service appeared to have stopped completely. The Council had missed the last five recycling collections with the last scheduled collection being made in February 2024.
26. In response to my enquiries the Council says it closed Mr X’s first complaint as it related to recycling over the Christmas period. It says that over the Christmas period usual round collections were changed to accommodate the workforce not working the Bank Holiday. This means the recycling was not collected every two week, but every four weeks for January 2024. The Council notified residents of the revised schedules on its website.
27. In relation to the other missed collections the Council says that until recently there was not an official fixed recycling crew for Mr X’s street. This meant some roads like Mr X’s were missed off collection maps or overlooked. In addition, due to staff resource issues and vehicle breakdowns recycling rounds were being dropped and collected on separate days. The Council says the depot has now put in place fixed crews and a new round restructure. It has also recently approved the purchase of new vehicles to help reduce the number of breakdowns.
28. The Council has a three stage process for responding to and monitoring missed collections. This includes issuing reminders to the crews and an investigation by an Assistant Service Manager. Where there is more than one missed collection in an eight week period the Council will add the property to its official monitoring list. The Council will then monitor collections for eight weeks, although this can be extended if there are further missed collections during this period.
29. This did not take place in this instance. The Council says it did not carry out any official monitoring of Mr X’s recycling collections due to resourcing issues.
30. Mr X has confirmed the recycling collection service has improved over the summer with collections taking place as scheduled. He has also confirmed he has received a refund for his garden waste service last year and has had no issues with these collection this year.

Analysis

31. It is clear from the documentation that the Council has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s recycling for many months. These failings in the service amount to fault.
32. The Council’s records show the missed collections were all subsequently collected, most before the next scheduled collection. However Mr X’s own records dispute this. His complaints also refer to consecutive missed collections and waiting weeks and months for the Council to make collections.
33. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the problem, or when it actually collected the recycling. It is concerning that the Council appears to have closed the reports of missed collections when it had not collected the waste.
34. The Council’s recent restructuring of the rounds and allocation of fixed crews appears to have resolved the problem and Mr X now receives regular recycling collections. This is to be welcomed but I consider the Council should have taken action to resolve the problem sooner.
35. The Council has a process for identifying and addressing recurring missed collections but it did not follow it in this instance and as a result the missed collections continued for longer than necessary.
36. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council responded to Mr X’s complaints. I am not satisfied the Council properly considered Mr X’s complaints or addressed his concerns. Although Mr X’s initial complaint related to missed collections outside the Christmas period the Council immediately closed it under its Christmas collections policy. This suggests it did not properly consider Mr X’s concerns and instead focussed on the date it was made. It is also disappointing that the Council closed the complaint without informing Mr X of its decision.
37. The Council’s response to Mr X’s subsequent complaint apologised for individual missed collections but did not address Mr X’s concerns or offer any explanation. Nor did it resolve the problem.
38. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling left at his property which has included disposing of it himself at the recycling centre. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to address his complaints and 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

39. The Council has agreed to:
• apologise to Mr X for the repeated failure to collect his recycling on the scheduled days and for the failure to properly consider and respond to his complaints.
• pay him £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular recycling collections has caused.
40. 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

41. The Council repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling as scheduled is fault, as was the failure to properly consider and respond to his complaints. These faults have caused Mr X and injustice.

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman