Summary: We have completed our investigation. The Council was at fault. It failed repeatedly to provide an assisted collection refuse service to Mr X. It failed to communicate clearly with Mr X. The Council should apologise to Mr X and make a symbolic payment to him.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained, although he should receive assisted collections, the Council failed repeatedly to collect his household waste throughout 2024. Mr X also complained the Council failed to return the bins to his property after emptying them.
2. Mr X said he feels like the Council is specifically targeting him. He has had two other complaints upheld by the Ombudsman in the past few years about the same matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation, if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, 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 complaint and information provided by Mr X.
7. Although Mr X complained to us mid-2024, I considered what happened during the whole year. This is because the matters complained about are the same, throughout this time. I did not reconsider issues covered in previous investigations.
8. I made written inquiries of the Council and considered its response along with relevant law and guidance.
9. I referred to the Ombudsman’s Guidance on Remedies, a copy of which can be found on our website.
10. Mr X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on the draft decision. I considered all comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and guidance

11. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 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.
12. The Councils practice is to make weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
13. Councils normally expect people to move their bins to the pavement in front of their property, to allow it to be easily collected. However, a council may decide to provide an assisted collection to a person if they are unable to move their bins because of a disability. Under an assisted collection, the crew will enter the person’s property, such as their garden or driveway, to collect the bins, and then return them to their storage place afterwards.
14. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and recycling boxes due to disability or age.

What happened

15. Mr X is an older man, with a variety of health problems. Mr X has been registered to receive assisted collection from the Council for many years.
16. In January 2024, Mr X complained to the Council about missed assisted collections, and his containers not being properly returned to his home, when they were collected.
17. Later that month the Council replied to Mr X at stage one of its complaint process. It upheld his complaint and apologised for the inadequate service. It said the refuse crew had been reminded about his assisted collection, and management updated appropriately.
18. The same thing happened in both February and March. Mr X complained about the same issues. The Council made its responses to Mr X, apologising to him and explaining it will remind the crew of the arrangements in place.
19. Later in March Mr X wrote to the Council again. He was told a manager would contact him. This did not happen.
20. In April Mr X asked the Council to review his complaint at stage two of its complaint process.
21. Further bin collections were missed that month.
22. In May the Council made a response at stage two of its complaint process. It upheld Mr X’s complaint. It apologised. It referred to steps taken to address the fault and signposted Mr X to the Ombudsman.
23. In June Mr X’s bin collections were missed again.
24. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman. He reported the missed collections, the issues with the assisted collections, and difficulty in communicating with the Council.
25. In August Mr X made a fourth complaint to the Council about more missed collections.
26. The Council made a response to Mr X at stage one of its complaint process. It explained the whole road’s bin collections were missed.
27. Mr X, unable to find a resolution through the Council complaint process, with the support of family members, wrote to the local MP. The local MP advocated on behalf of Mr X with the Council.
28. Council management reviewed the problems. Further reminders were issued to the crew about Mr X’s collections. The Council wrote to the MP.
29. In November the Council decided Mr X’s property was a risk hazard for crew members, due to having steps leading up to the front door.
30. The Council decided to ‘red card’ the property. At the end of November, it wrote to Mr X to tell him this.
31. When the Council ‘red card’ a property this means it removes the containers. It expects residents to leave bin bags outside for collection. It refers to the bin bags as ‘sacks.’ It does this to enable safe collection for the crew.
32. Mr X remained frustrated and was confused about why the Council continued to fail to collect his refuse. He continued to write to the Ombudsman to ask for help, as his waste was not collected properly through December and into January 2025.

My findings

33. Council records show eight missed bin collections in 2024 for Mr X.
34. Aside from the routine contact Mr X maintained with the Council about the missed collections, Mr X made four formal complaints to the Council in 2024. Mr X’s adult child contacted the local MP, as the problems persisted throughout the year. The local MP also wrote to the Council and asked for the problems to be rectified.
35. Records show problems for other neighbours in April, July, August, September and October when bin collections were missed.
36. In total, during 2024, 12 reports of missed bin collections were received by Mr X’s neighbours. Out of those 12, 7 were down to the whole road being missed out because of refuse vehicle issues.
37. The Ombudsman has investigated many complaints about the Council missing bin collections, and its poor handling of the assisted collection service. The current system in place for managing the missed bin collections is not fit for purpose. This is demonstrated in Mr X’s case, as he lived through an entire year of problems in 2024, with little to no resolution, despite the complaint processes being fulfilled on several occasions. The failure to deliver an effective assisted collection service to Mr X was fault by the Council.
38. The missed collections caused Mr X great distress. He felt targeted by the Council. It is understandable that Mr X felt this way. Mr X reported the same matter to the Ombudsman twice before. On both occasions we found the Council were at fault.
39. The language used in the communication to Mr X in November was confusing. The Council told Mr X his property had been ‘risk assessed’ and was being ‘red-carded.’ It told him his containers would be replaced with sacks.
40. Understandably Mr X thought this meant the Council would provide him with sacks. He told us he has never been given a sack. What in fact the Council meant by ‘replaced with sacks’ was that it would collect Mr X’s refuse through collecting bin bags he leaves outside his property.
41. This was not properly explained to Mr X.
42. The Council could have explained this clearly, without using jargon. The Council have collected refuse from Mr X’s property for many years, without having carried out a risk assessment. While the risk assessment process itself is not in question, it is understandable that Mr X was confused by this. The method of communication used by the Council to explain changes to Mr X’s collections was poor and added to his distress. I would encourage the Council to reconsider the language it uses when communicating with residents about refuse in future.
43. The Ombudsman has issued several public reports into the Council’s handling of its refuse collection service. Due to this, I will not be making service improvement recommendations, but will focus solely upon recommendations to remedy the injustice suffered by Mr X.
44. Given the repeated failures in the assisted collection service Mr X received, the recommendations are for a senior member of staff to carry out, on behalf of the Council.

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Action

45. To remedy the injustice to Mr X from fault by the Council, within eight weeks of a final decision the Council will take the following actions:
• Apologise to Mr X in line with our guidance on Making an Effective Apology. 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.
• Pay Mr X £300 in recognition of the continued upset and repeated failure to make regular assisted refuse collections,
46. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.
47. We would normally ask the Council to monitor Mr X’s household waste collections for eight weeks to ensure the collections were consistently carried out properly. We are aware that industrial action is ongoing. Given the current industrial action, we cannot now make this recommendation.

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Decision

48. The investigation is complete. There was fault by the Council. The action agreed to by the Council is a suitable remedy for the injustice caused to Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman