Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her bins not being collected due to strike action. This is because the law prevents us from investigating complaints about matters that affect most of the residents in a Council’s area.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council has failed to collect her bins due to ongoing strike action by refuse workers. Mrs X also complains about the Council’s missed bin collection policy. Her collections are on a Friday and if missed there is not a collection the following day.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
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 (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. I cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her bins not being collected due to strike action because it is about a matter that affects most of the residents in the Council’s area. This places the matter out of our jurisdiction as referenced in paragraph 2.
7. Mrs X has spoken to the Council about the missed collection policy and logged her comments. The Council advise that they try to collect missed bins as soon as possible. It does not give timescales or expectations. I will not investigate this part of her complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her bins not being collected due to strike action because it is about a matter that affects most of the residents in the Council’s area. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the way the Council manage missed collections because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman