Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s garden waste collections. The impacts of the matters complained of do not amount to a significant personal injustice to him which justifies us investigating. An investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X subscribes to the Council’s standard paid-for garden waste collection service. It uses two reusable waste bags, collected each week. Mr X complains the Council:
1. delayed two months in delivering to him a second garden waste bag;
2. gave an incorrect date for when he acknowledged receipt of the bag, well before he actually received it;
3. did not return another waste bag after a collection, again leaving him with only one bag;
4. made an error in his subscription date.
2. Mr X says the matters has left him financially worse off. For the time he has had one waste bag, about eight months, he has only been able to use half of the garden waste collection service. He says the subscription date issue has led to him missing out on two months’ worth of collections. Mr X says dealing with the Council has affected his mental health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement;
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We recognise the issues Mr X has raised as complaints about the Council’s garden waste scheme have caused him some loss of service or meant he has not had use of the full service. Based on the Council’s current annual service charge of £80.90, the loss of two months’ worth of his subscription and the reduced service he has had, while having one waste sack instead of two, amounts to a value of just over £40. We would not investigate to pursue that amount. We realise Mr X has also had frustration and inconvenience, and spent time and been caused some trouble from pursuing the matter. But these impacts, along with the claimed financial loss from the matters complained of, do not amount to a sufficiently significant personal injustice to him which justifies us investigating.
6. The Council told Mr X in August 2024 that it did not consider its bin crew was responsible for the loss of one of his garden waste bags after a collection. An investigation of this issue by us would not lead to a different outcome. We would not be able to determine what happened to the bag and find it was lost due to Council fault. The cost of a replacement bag is £8.20. Even if it was fault which led to the bag’s loss, the financial impact on Mr X of paying for another would not be such a significant personal injustice to warrant us investigating.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• the matters complained of have not caused such significant personal injustice to him to justify an investigation; and
• investigation of the loss of a waste bag during a collection would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman