Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council levying a delivery charge for him to receive a larger replacement bin. There is insufficient significant personal injustice caused to him by the matter to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council is requiring him to pay a delivery charge to exchange his small garden waste bin for a larger standard one. He says he should not have to pay the delivery charge. Mr X says he has had excess garden waste which he had been taking to the tip but that has now closed. He wants the Council to provide him with the larger bin free of any charge.

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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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or

(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 from Mr X, the Council’s website, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council record indicates Mr X has a 240-litre standard sized garden waste bin at his property. Mr X says his bin is the smaller 140-litre type. The Council has advised he would have to pay a delivery charge to receive a standard bin and that it levies this charge as a matter of policy.
5. The bin delivery charge amount is not clear from the Council’s website, nor from Mr X’s complaint. The cost of a replacement bin of the standard size Mr X wants is £35.60. The delivery charge for a bin is more likely than not to be lower than the cost of an actual bin.
6. We recognise Mr X considers he should not have to pay any charge. But the financial impact of the delivery charge does not amount to sufficient significant personal injustice to him which warrants us investigating, so we will not do so. Even if the Council required Mr X to pay the cost of a standard bin, as well as for its delivery, it would still not be sufficient injustice to justify an investigation. We recognise Mr X has had inconvenience from dealing with garden waste which would not fit in his current bin. But not having a larger bin for the waste stems from the decision to not agree the delivery charge.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient significant personal injustice caused to him by the matter complained of to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman