Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council communicated changes to its Christmas household waste collection service. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained the Council failed to properly advise residents of changes to its Christmas household waste collection service. Mr X says the Council’s approach disadvantaged those unable to access the internet.

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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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(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 the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In its response to Mr X’s complaint the Council said its Contact Centre can provide information about Christmas collections dates. It said local councillors are informed and there are press releases. The Council said it does not have facilities in place to write to each household.
6. While I understand Mr X is concerned about the issue at the heart of his complaint, we will not start an investigation.
7. It is for the Council to decide how it advises its residents of the arrangements for its household waste collection service. There is no requirement to write to each household individually and that is not something we could say the Council should do.
8. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify us investigating. We could not add anything to the Council’s response or achieve anything more.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman