Summary: Mr K complained the Council is not properly tackling issues of waste on his road, which results in waste on the pavement almost all the time. We found no fault in how the Council managed the issues.

The complaint

1. Mr K complains the Council’s household waste collection system for his road is not working. In particular that the Council:

• has not changed the waste collection system for his road to a better one.
• fails to properly take enforcement action when residents leave their rubbish out at the wrong times.
• regularly misses collections.

2. Mr K says this results in rubbish bags left on the pavement almost all the time. He says this is unsightly and creates public health risks including attracting vermin.
3. He would like the Council to change the collection system in his road and provide communal bins used in other roads. He also wants the Council to patrol the area more regularly and issue fines to people that leave rubbish on the road at the wrong times.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)
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. I considered the information Mr K provided and discussed the complaint with him.
7. I considered the Council’s comments and the documents it provided.
8. Mr K and the organisation 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

Background information

9. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (the Act) to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
10. Councils can issue householders with fixed penalty notices when they do not follow waste rules. The Government has issued guidance on how and when councils can and cannot issue penalties. The guidance says the Government wishes to encourage a measured and balanced approach, where householders are not penalised for minor breaches of waste bin rules. The use of these penalties should focus on those who cause genuine harm to the local environment.
11. The Council explains how it collects household waste on its website. It provides details of the collection periods for every road. Residents are asked to put waste out for collection in the 30 minutes before the start of a collection period. The times of the collection periods, frequency of collections, and type of waste receptacles varies across the borough.
12. The Council has a Waste Enforcement Policy that can be downloaded from its website. It explains residents’ responsibilities and provides advice on disposal of household waste. It describes the enforcement action it may take when residents commit an offence by putting out waste at the wrong time. It says a warning will normally be issued in the first instance which will be valid for 12 months. For any subsequent offence a notice of intended prosecution may be issued, which can result in a fixed penalty notice (FPN).
13. The Waste Enforcement Policy also provides advice for residents in case the collection time is not convenient. This includes suggesting residents can take their waste to one of the “Big Black Bins” (large communal bins) that are situated around Westminster.

What should happen

14. The relevant section of Mr K’s road has two collection periods every day, one in the morning between 9am and 10am and one in the evening between 6:30pm and 7:30pm.
15. Residents are therefore required to place their residential rubbish bags on the pavement for collection between 8:30am and 9am any morning, and between 6pm and 6:30pm any evening.

What did happen

16. Mr K complained to the Council about rubbish left on the pavement where he lived in October 2023, December 2023 and January 2024. He described the issues in detail. In summary, he complained:

• Other local roads have different collection systems, are much cleaner, and benefit from large communal bins that his road does not have.
• people living on his road were not following the rules about putting their waste out on time and the Council had not issued any fines.
• the refuse collectors working for the Council sometimes missed collections, especially the evening collection period.

17. In his complaints Mr K told the Council he wanted:

• his road to be changed to the system used for neighbouring streets that includes the provision of large communal bins.
• the Council to take more enforcement action against people placing waste on the pavement at the wrong times.

18. Following the Council’s final response to Mr K on 29 February 2024, he took photographs on nine days, during the evening, between 29 February 2024 and 8 March 2024. Some of the photographs show household waste on the pavement after the evening collection periods. This might be because the refuse collectors failed to collect the waste, or because residents are putting it out at the wrong time, or both.

Analysis

19. The Council responded to Mr K’s complaints and my enquiries. It has expressed sympathy with Mr K’s frustration with ongoing problems of waste on his road. However, the Council did not uphold Mr K’s complaint because it is confident it has taken appropriate action in response to the concerns raised. It provided me with further information and evidence.
20. I have summarised the Council’s responses below:

Waste collection system including the provision of large communal bins

21. The Council said Mr K’s road has a mix of properties, some that have front gardens on which waste can be stored in bins, and some that do not. The parts of Mr K’s road that has properties with front gardens has the same collection frequency as other roads in the area. This includes the roads which Mr K mentioned in his complaints as being cleaner. The collection frequency is twice a week.
22. Many properties on Mr K’s road have no front garden storage space and present waste directly onto the pavement. The Council collects this residential waste at a higher frequency, twice a day.
23. The Council said the introduction of on-street large communal bins is currently considered as a last resort. It only considers this where there are a large number of flats and higher density of residents. It said Mr K’s road does not meet those requirements. The communal bins are considered a last resort because they are often the subject of complaints and petitions for removal from residents. Operational reviews have found communal bins have caused:

• fly-tipping.
• anti-social behaviour.
• contamination with builders’ waste.
• reduction of household recycling rates.

24. I have not found fault in the way the Council made its decision about how to carry out its duty to collect waste and recycling from Mr K’s road. It has provided evidence of considering the different types of property on the road and the historical issues with communal waste bins. Because there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome.

Enforcement of waste offences

25. In response to Mr K’s complaints the Council said his concerns had been raised with the relevant team manager and ongoing monitoring and patrols were taking place. It said the patrols included potential fines and enforcement. It explained that enforcement action had taken place. It said gathering enough evidence to issue a fine was often difficult.
26. I asked the Council for evidence of its enforcement against residents on Mr K’s road for not complying with household waste collection requirements for the last 12 months.
27. The Council provided a record of enforcement between July 2023 and July 2024 that detailed 90 separate actions on Mr K’s road. These included:

• Educational letters to residents.
• 42 legal notices served on households and commercial premises regarding the presentation of waste.
• 11 FPNs for residential fly tipping.
• Five FPNs for commercial waste offences
• 15 searches of waste that yielded no evidence.

28. The evidence shows the Council has taken action to enforce against waste offences and the use of its powers is consistent with the Government’s guidance and its own enforcement policy. I therefore do not find fault.

Evidence indicating missed collections

29. The Council said it monitored missed collections by its waste collection vehicles by using GPS data that records their location.
30. I asked the Council for the GPS data for the waste collection vehicle for Mr K’s road for 15 evenings between 23 February 2023 and 8 March 2024. I chose this period because it covered the period Mr K took photographs of waste on the pavement that could have been the result of missed collections.
31. The Council provided the data which showed the collection vehicle visited the relevant section of Mr K’s road on every evening in the period.
32. On two occasions the collection vehicle visited the road earlier than its allotted time band of 6:30pm to 7pm. Those collections took place at 4:10pm and 5:18pm. On those occasions, residential waste left out at the correct time would have been missed by the earlier collection. However, I have not found fault as there were no missed collections.

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Final decision

33. I have completed my investigation and find the Council was not at fault in how it decided the waste collection system for the road, conducts enforcement and monitors its refuse collection vehicles for potential missed collections.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman