Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling as scheduled over a significant period. We found the Council’s failure to properly address the issue of restricted access to the back street and to ensure household waste and recycling could continue to be collected as scheduled is fault. As is the failure to communicate with residents regarding any proposed or implemented changes to the waste collection service. As a result Mr X now takes all his waste and recycling to the Household Waste and Recycling Centre. The Council has agreed to apologise for this fault and make a payment to Mr X, and to review the waste collection arrangements for Mr X’s street.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling as scheduled over a significant period. He says his waste has been left while his neighbours’ has been collected.
2. Mr X also complains the Council has now moved the collection point for his bins without proper consultation and will no longer collect them from place he has presented them for the last 30 years.
3. As his bins are not routinely collected, Mr X now takes all his waste and recycling to the Household Waste and Recycling Centre.

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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. 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)
6. 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

7. Mr X complains about problems with the waste collection service for several years, but we would not investigate matters going back to 2021. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman in August 2024, so my investigation will only focus on events since August 2023. It was open to Mr X to raise concerns about the earlier missed collections much sooner.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Mr X 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

Refuse and recycling collections

10. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from 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.
11. The Council collects the household waste and recycling separately every three weeks.
12. When a resident reports a missed household waste or recycling collection, the Council will send them official bags to use until the next scheduled collection.

What happened here

13. Mr X lives in a terraced house and presents his bins for collection outside the rear gate to his property. Mr X says he has presented his bins in the same place for over 30 years. He complains that although his neighbours bins are routinely emptied his household waste and recycling bins are often missed.
14. The Council’s records show Mr X’s contacted the Council on 29 August 2023 to report his household waste had not been collected again. He told the officer he had put his bin out at 7:10 am and the collection crew arrived at around 8:10am. Mr X said that although his bin had been moved, it had not been emptied, but his neighbours bins had. He asked for the missed collection to be logged and said he would take the waste to the household waste and recycling centre.
15. Mr X contacted the Council to report a further missed collection in September 2023. He said his recycling had been collected but the crew had again ignored his household waste. Mr X asked for a call back from a supervisor.
16. In October 2023 Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council about the missed collections. He listed all the missed collections he had reported since 2021, including three missed collections since August 2023. And asked to meet with a senior officer to discuss his complaint.
17. An officer telephoned Mr X to discuss his concerns in late November 2023 and the Council then responded to Mr X’s complaint on 1 December 2023. The Council apologised for the inconvenience Mr X had experienced with his collections. It explained the collection teams had been experiencing difficulties gaining access to the back street due to the way some residents were parking their vehicles, and the deterioration of the back street. The Council said that to improve the reliability of the collection service, it had no alternative other than to implement a collection point. It said it would notify residents by letter in due course where bins needed to be collected from on collection day and when this would take effect.
18. The Council also confirmed an officer would carry out a site visit to show Mr X the issues the crews were facing.
19. A waste operations supervisor then visited on 12 December 2023.
20. In January 2024 Mr X asked for his complaint to be considered further. He said four consecutive household waste collections were missed starting on 29 August 2023. And that his reports had fallen on deaf ears. Mr X did not accept the Council’s explanation that the collection vehicle could not turn into the back street. He noted the stretch of the back street with potholes was at the entrance and the vehicles were still reversing into this area. Mr X considered this was an excuse to enforce a collection point.
21. Mr X said his neighbours had started presenting their bins at the entrance to the back street to ensure they were emptied. He also said that when he asked the crew why his bin had not been emptied they suggested he should have received a leaflet from the Council advising him to present his bin at the collection point. Mr X disputed this. He also told the Council he no longer presets his bin for collection as he knows it will not be emptied.
22. The Council responded in late March 2024 and apologised for the missed collections and the breakdown in communication. It reiterated the collection teams were experiencing considerable difficulties gaining safe access to Mr X’s back street. This was due to the way vehicles were parked and the condition of the private road. It said it had written to residents asking them not to block the back street on collection day so that it could collect the bins. The Council told Mr X that if it continued to have access issues it would have no alternative other than to change the point of collection for the bins.
23. As Mr X was not satisfied with the Council’s response he has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his concerns. Mr X says he has been taking all his waste and recycling to the household waste and recycling centre since August 2023. He is also unhappy that a waste operations supervisor visited his property unannounced to ask why he was not presenting his bin for collection. Mr X says the officer also trespassed on his property on another occasion to check his bins without consulting Mr X.
24. Mr X maintains the collection vehicles are still driving over the most deteriorated part of the back street and emptying the bins. He would like his bins to be collected from the presentation point he has used for the last 30 years.
25. In response to my enquiries the Council says that although it has discussed a collection point with residents it has not been able to implement one due to Mr X’s complaints. However, the residents do move their bins to the end of the unadopted back street and have done for several years. The Council says the bin wagon is unable to reverse into the back street due to the parked cars and one property being extended at the rear which prevents the vehicle manoeuvring safely. It says it also faces issues with the entrance to the back street as it is on the route of a mini roundabout.
26. The Council says officers have attended the site on numerous occasions following reports of missed bins. However Mr X’s bins had not been presented so the Council was unable to empty them. It says it could implement a monitoring process to ensure the bins are collected, but to do this, Mr X would have to put his bin out.

Analysis

27. It is for the Council to determine where residents should present their waste for collection. The Council’s website says bins should be placed at an accessible location for the waste collection crews. For properties like Mr X’s, it says this could be out at the back, at the kerbside or at a usual collection point.
28. Mr X has presented his bins at the rear of his property for decades. He therefore has a reasonable expectation his waste will be collected from there. The Council’s records show that it repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s waste from the rear of his property between August and October 2023. These failings in the service amount to fault.
29. As Mr X then stopped presenting his bins for collection, the full extent of any ongoing failings in the service are unclear. It is also unclear when, how, and by whom the decision that the collection crews would no longer access the road behind Mr X’s property was made.
30. The Council has a duty to arrange for the collection of domestic household waste and recycling. If it considers it is unable to continue to safely empty the bins at the rear of Mr X’s property we would expect it to make alternative arrangements to ensure the waste is still collected. We would also expect any changes to be properly communicated to Mr X and any other residents affected.
31. Although the Council told Mr X in late 2023 that it intended to introduce a collection point, it has yet to do so. However, other residents appear to have taken matters into their own hands and have been presenting their bins at an unofficial collection point for some time.
32. Mr X disagrees with the introduction of a collection point, but this is a decision the Council can take.
33. The Council’s failure to properly address the issue of restricted access to the back street and to ensure household waste and recycling could continue to be collected as scheduled is fault. As is the failure to communicate with residents regarding any proposed or implemented changes to the waste collection service.
34. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X had to manage his own household waste and recycling following missed collections and incurred time and expense in taking it to the household waste and recycling centre.
35. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and with the Council’s failure to effectively communicate with residents and resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

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Action

36. The Council has agreed to:
• apologise to Mr X and pay him £100 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to address the issue of restricted access and to make regular household waste and recycling collections has caused.
• review the waste collection arrangements for Mr X’s street to determine whether collections from the back road can resume, or alternatively to identify a collection point for residents to present their bins. The Council should clearly communicate any decisions regarding the waste collection arrangements to all residents affected.
37. The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint and provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

38. I find fault causing injustice. The Council agreed to take actions to remedy injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman