Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about assisted bin collections. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains the Council delayed providing an assisted bin collection service and, as a result, she has a backlog of rubbish and a fly infestation.

Back to top

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence. I also considered our Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

4. Ms X applied for assisted collection in August 2023. An officer visited but declined the request because Ms X said she is able-bodied.
5. Ms X contacted the Council again in January. The Council visited but Ms X was not available. On the second attempt, in March, an officer spoke to Ms X and it was agreed Ms X would try to present her waste but, if not possible, the Council would do another assessment.
6. In April the Council said it could provide hand bins and assisted collection. Ms X initially said she would think about it and then said she would like to switch to hand bins.
7. In May the Council decided to provide hand bins and assisted collection.
8. In June a housing officer did a tenancy check and Ms X reported that her bins had not been emptied for a month (refuse is collected every two weeks). The housing officer reported this to the waste team who arranged to collect the rubbish. The Council also arranged to monitor the collections for eight weeks. The Council told Ms X how to report missed collections.
9. Ms X complains about a delay in providing assisted collections. She says the Council gave contradictory information about the qualifying criteria for assisted collections. She says her home is full of flies due to a backlog of rubbish. Ms X wants the Council to clean her home and arrange for pest control to visit.
10. I will not investigate this complaint because, while the Council could have done some things better, there is insufficient evidence of fault to require an investigation. Ms X did not qualify for assisted collection in August 2023 because she told the officer she is able-bodied. The service is for people who are “frail, elderly, disabled or incapacitated, where there is no able-bodied person to present the wheeled bin to the kerbside”. Ms X said she is able-bodied so there is no suggestion of fault in the Council’s decision not to provide the service.
11. Ms X contacted the Council in 2024. The Council could have explained in more detail why the previous application had been refused. Thereafter, the Council visited Ms X twice, gathered more information and then decided to provide the service. It appears there was a gap in the service, of about four weeks, when the Council was initiating the move to the assisted collection. It would have been better if this transition had happened without disruption to the service; but, once the Council was alerted by the housing officer, it arranged for the missed collections to be removed. I have not seen any evidence Ms X reported a missed collection during that initial period; if she had then it is likely the Council would have done an additional collection sooner than it did. The Council then acted appropriately by arranging a period of monitoring.
12. Ms X reports that her home is infested with flies. Ms X could report this to her housing officer to see if there are any issues that could be addressed by the housing team or if she could be referred to other agencies for support.
13. As stated above, there are some issues which the Council could have managed better; but, equally, some of the time it has taken for the Council to provide an assisted service is due to the information provided by Ms X or how she responded to different events. I am not saying Ms X did anything wrong, but some of her responses affected the outcome.

Back to top

Final decision

14. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman