Summary: Mrs B complained the Council is not providing a satisfactory waste collection service to the road she lives on. The Council was at fault for missing waste collections and there has been service failure to comply with its duty to keep land clear of litter and refuse. Because of the fault and service failure, Mrs B suffered frustration and uncertainty, and it meant she continued to contact the Council to report issues and raise complaints. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B, make a symbolic payment, and monitor waste collections on Mrs B’s road. It has also agreed to carry out officer visits and make written contact with residents, produce an action plan, and issue a staff briefing.

The complaint

1. Mrs B complains the Council is not providing a satisfactory waste collection service to the road she lives on, resulting in overfilled bins, waste piling up on the street, fly-tipping, and pests.
2. Mrs B says the waste is affecting her mental health and enjoyment of her home, and she has spent money trying to tackle the pests.
3. Mrs B says she would like the Council to increase weekly collections and consider a more permanent solution such as cages surrounding the bins.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. Service failure can happen when an organisation fails to provide a service as it should have done because of circumstances outside its control. We do not need to show any blame, intent, flawed policy or process, or bad faith by an organisation to say service failure (fault) has occurred. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1), as amended)
6. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
7. 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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What I have and have not investigated

8. I have investigated matters in this case from August 2023 to August 2024.
9. Our powers are subject to time limits. We do not normally investigate matters unless they are brought to our attention within 12 months from when the events occurred, or from when the complainant could have known about them. We have discretion to go back beyond this limit but would need a good reason to do so.
10. Mrs B says the issues she has complained about started in 2020, but I have not investigated matters before August 2023, which is 12 months before Mrs B brought her complaint to us. This is because Mrs B could have come to us earlier.

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How I considered this complaint

11. I considered evidence provided by Mrs B and the Council, as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
12. Mrs B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

13. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from the properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
14. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 imposes duties on local authorities to keep clean public highways for which they are responsible.
15. The Council’s practice is to make a fortnightly household waste and recycling collection.
16. For the road Mrs B lives on, the Council has increased the frequency of collections to weekly. For properties on Mrs B’s road with communal bins, the Council has increased the frequency of those collections to twice weekly. It has also placed a mixed recycling bin at the end of the road which the Council says it empties every other day.
17. The Council provides residents on Mrs B’s road with either bins or seagull proof bags to use for their waste, depending on the property type and storage space available.
18. The Council says it manually sweeps Mrs B’s road and collects all fly-tipped waste each day except for Sundays.

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What happened

19. This is a summary of events, outlining key facts and it does not cover everything that has occurred in this case.
20. Mrs B says the Council has failed to provide a satisfactory waste collection service to the road she lives on, despite reporting issues and raising complaints with the Council.
21. According to the Council’s records, there were 15 reports of missed collections by residents on Mrs B’s road between August 2023 and August 2024. The Council has marked the reports as closed which suggests it has since made the missed collections. The records also show residents reported overfilled bins and fly-tipping. Mrs B reported overfilled bins and waste on the street on two occasions during this period.
22. In early April 2024, Mrs B raised a stage one complaint with the Council. She told it she had been reporting issues about the waste service for over four years with the Council and nothing had changed.
23. The Council sent its stage one complaint response to Mrs B in early May 2024. It apologised for the frustration and told her it was working with stakeholders to find a resolution.
24. Mrs B raised a stage two complaint with the Council on the same day. She told it:
• Residents report fly-tipping and overfilled bins daily, so the twice weekly collections are not adequate.
• The frequency of the waste collections needs to be reviewed and amended.
• Fly-tipped waste in the rear of a neighbouring property was set fire to which caused damage to her property.
25. In early June 2024, the Council sent its stage two response to Mrs B. It told her it had referred the incident of the fly-tipped waste to its Street Scene Enforcement Team. The Council also told her it is already providing an increased level of waste resource and service to her road, but it would continue to work with other departments and stakeholders to find further solutions.

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Analysis

26. It is clear from the Council’s records and information from Mrs B it has failed on several occasions to keep Mrs B’s road clear of refuse. This is despite assurances it was working to find a resolution, and the increased level of resource and service it put in place. I recognise the Council has taken actions in attempt to resolve the problems on Mrs B’s road. It has:
• increased the frequency of general waste collections from fortnightly to weekly, and then to twice weekly for properties with communal bins;
• placed large waste bins at the end of the road as a temporary measure which are emptied twice daily; and
• it collects fly-tipped waste each day, except for Sundays.
27. So, it is not for a lack of trying that there is a problem with the waste service on Mrs B’s road. But the Council has a duty to keep land clear of litter and refuse, as far as is practicable. The Council’s failure to comply with this duty, despite its increased level of resource and service, is a service failure. This meant Mrs B had to report the overfilled bins and fly-tipping, and raise complaints with the Council. This caused frustration and uncertainty to her as she could not trust the service would improve.
28. The Council’s records of missed collection reports also show it has failed to collect waste as scheduled on Mrs B’s road on several occasions, contributing to the problem of overfilled bins and fly-tipping. The failure to collect the waste as scheduled was fault. The records show most of the reports were closed shortly after they were raised, indicating the missed collections were all later collected before the next scheduled collection. But the records show the Council did not close five of the reports in a timely manner.
29. For example, a missed collection report made by a resident on 13 February 2024 was not closed by the Council until 1 March 2024, indicating the scheduled collection for the week in between these dates was also missed. This also suggests the Council’s records are not a reliable reflection of the extent of the problem.
30. In response to my enquiries, the Council told me residents of Mrs B’s road are provided with over double the capacity of general waste containment than other roads receive in the Council area. It also said it collects the waste at more than double the frequency of most residents in the Council area. But it carried out an audit in 2023 which highlighted roughly 75% of residents are not using the bags or bins provided at their properties which may be contributing to the issue of overfilled bins and fly-tipping. It is not clear what the cause of this is, and if or what action was taken by the Council in response to this data. But regardless of this, it is clear the measures the Council has already put in place are not sufficient. While the Council has tried to resolve the issue and continues to work to find a resolution, the problems remain, and the Council should do more to find a permanent fix.
31. We have published guidance to explain how we calculate remedies for people who have suffered injustice because of fault by a council. Our primary aim is to put people back in the position they would have been in if the fault by the Council had not occurred.
32. Sometimes we will recommend a financial payment to the person who brought their complaint to us. This might be to reimburse a person who has suffered a quantifiable loss, or it might be more of a symbolic payment which serves as an acknowledgement of the distress or difficulties they have been put through. But our remedies are not intended to be punitive and we do not award compensation in the way a court might. Nor do we calculate a financial remedy based on what the cost of the services would have been to the provider.

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Action

33. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused to Mrs B by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following actions within four weeks of my decision:
• Apologise to Mrs B for the frustration and uncertainty caused by the Council’s failure to comply with its duty to keep the land clear of refuse. This apology should be in accordance with our guidance Making an effective apology.
• Pay Mrs B a symbolic payment of £300 to acknowledge the same as above.
• Monitor collections on Mrs B’s road for eight weeks to ensure the collections are carried out on the scheduled days and to identify if residents are making use of the bags and bins where applicable and storing waste correctly.
• Make written contact with residents of Mrs B’s road to advise them of the correct way to store waste and present it for collection.
• Issue a staff briefing to relevant staff members to remind them of the importance of actioning and closing reports about waste collection issues from residents in a timely manner.
34. The Council has agreed to take the following actions within three months of my decision:
• Carry out officer visits to properties on Mrs B’s road to ensure residents have the correct waste bags and bins where applicable and are aware of the need to use them.
• Produce an action plan to identify ways of improving the waste service on Mrs B’s road and stop fly-tipping and bins becoming overfilled. The action plan should include timeframes for any action to be taken and the Council should provide us with a copy of this action plan.
35. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

36. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman