Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed refuse collections and unsuccessful attempts to report them. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, says the waste for his whole street is often not collected after bank holidays and the Council’s website will not let him report the missed collections. Mr x wants the Council to change its website so he can report missed collections.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. I also considered the complaint correspondence, the Council’s website and our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mr X’s normal collection day is Friday. Collections are a day late during bank holiday weeks; in these weeks the collection day is Saturday.
5. The Council’s website says that if the collection is missed for the whole street then it will aware of the issue and there is no need for people to make a report.
6. Mr X’s bin was not emptied on the Saturday following the first May bank holiday. He tried to report the missed collection on the Sunday but the system would not let him; it said the collection had not yet been done. The Council collected the waste on the Monday. The same situation occurred for the late May holiday.
7. Mr X complained about the missed collection and that he could not report it. The Council explained his waste should be collected on Saturdays in bank holiday weeks but during that week not enough staff had volunteered for overtime, so the collection was delayed until the Monday. The Council apologised for the inconvenience and explained he could not report the missed collection because the collection had not taken place when he tried to log it.
8. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The collection was two days late due to a lack of staff doing overtime, but this does not represent fault which requires an investigation. I can understand why Mr X thought he should have been able to report the missed collection; but the website says there is no need to make a report if the whole street has been missed and there was no individual missed collection for Mr X to report because the collection had not taken place. The reporting system may not be ideal but it does not amount to fault requiring an investigation.
9. I also will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of injustice. I appreciate late collections are annoying and Mr X may have felt frustrated that he could not report the missed collection but this does not represent a level of injustice requiring an investigation. I say this because the waste was collected on the Monday and, as it seems to be a recurrent bank holiday issue, it is reasonable to expect Mr X would be aware the collection would be made in the next day or so. And, as I have said, there is no need to make a report when there are problems which affect the while street.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman