Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeated failed to collect the recycling from his street over a prolonged period. This has led to a build-up of waste in the street which is unsightly and smelly. We found the Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling over a sustained period is fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Mr X to remedy this injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X complained the Council has repeated failed to collect the recycling from hi street over a prolonged period. This has led to a build-up of waste in the street which is unsightly and smelly. Mr X has had to dispose of his recycling himself at the recycling centre.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered evidence provided by Mr X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
5. 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

6. 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.
7. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
8. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.
9. In January 2025 collection crews began industrial action. This began with specific strike days each week when waste would not be collected. Then from 11 March 2025 it became an all-out strike. The Council suspended recycling collections when industrial action began and then declared a major incident on 31 March 2025 to address the impact of the industrial action.

What happened here

10. Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his own or his neighbours’ recycling as scheduled since June 2024. In November 2024, Mr X told us the Council had only collected the recycling from his street once in the previous 22 weeks.
11. The Council’s records show Mr X reported 14 missed recycling collections between July 2024 and January 2025. Mr X’s neighbours also reported similar missed collections. According to the Council’s records a number of these collections were missed due to the round being dropped due to operational issues.
12. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner. Mr X disputes the Council made these collections.
13. In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also made a formal complaint in late August 2024. He complained their recycling had only been collected once in 10 weeks and that this was a health and safety risk to residents. He asked for the bins to be collected as scheduled and for an officer to call him to discuss the problem.
14. The Council responded on 19 September 2024 and apologised for the poor level of service. It said the manager was aware of the issues and had provided the crews with additional reminders to ensure the collections were made as scheduled. The Council also told Mr X the depot had been experiencing operational issues which had affected the collection services.
15. As Mr X’s recycling collection was missed again on 20 September 2024 he asked to escalate his complaint. He then contacted the Council again on 18 October 2024 as he was concerned the Council was not taking his complaint seriously. The recycling collection had been missed again which meant they had now been collected once in 20 weeks. Mr X was extremely frustrated by the Council’s failure to resolve the situation. He now had bags of recycling in his garden as there was nowhere else to put them.
16. The Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint and responded on 21 October 2024. It apologised that another recycling collection had been missed. The Council explained it had been experiencing some localised disruption due to operational issues relating to both staff and vehicles. It was working with other depots to arrange clearance of the outstanding collections as soon as resources were available.
17. The Council advised residents to leave their bins out and it would do everything possible to catch up any dropped roads. It again apologised for the disruption and difficulty caused.
18. Mr X was not satisfied by the Council’s response and asked us to investigate his concerns. The recycling was still not being collected and he was having to take the accumulated recycling to the recycling centre. Mr X said they had had rats in their garden and the situation was causing unnecessary stress and affecting his family.
19. In response to my enquiries the Council says there are a few reasons for the repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling over a sustained period. These include:
• In July 2024 the depot was restructuring the refuse and recycling rounds which impacted on the service. During the restructuring the depot found Mr X’s street was on a round that was not properly allocated a crew. It says this was fixed during the restructuring but there were some teething problems putting it in place
• Dropped rounds due to vehicle, staffing and other operational issues out of the Council’s control. Mr X’s street was dropped numerous times throughout last year. The Council says that where a round is dropped it aims to collect the dropped collection before the next scheduled collection. However, this is not always possible.
• Industrial action has caused a major disruption. The Council has hired agency staff to cover the round since January but they are held up leaving the depot each day so there is less time to complete the rounds.
20. The Council has a process for responding to and monitoring missed collections. It will check the property history to ensure it is not a repeated missed address. If there are repeated missed collections this will be raised with an Assistant Manager so that they can talk to the crew to find out the cause of the missed collections. The depot will also prepare a reminder for the crew pack provided to the crew for the next scheduled collection date. Where there is staff and vehicle availability the Assistant Manager will also schedule a crew to collect the missed collection.
21. The Council says this process is not currently taking place due to the industrial action. Monitoring will recommence when the industrial action has ended. However, the Council has added Mr X’s property to the depot’s Hotlist. This is handed out to the crew on the day of collection and provided the depot have enough crews to service this round Mr X’s property will be prioritised for collection.

Analysis

22. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X and his neighbours’ recycling since July 2024. These failings in the service amount to fault.
23. The Council’s records show the missed collections were subsequently made. However Mr X’s complaints repeatedly refer to the accumulated waste not being collected and the recycling only being collected once in the preceding months. It is therefore concerning that the Council appears to have closed the reports of missed collections when it had not actually collected the waste.
24. The current industrial action will inevitably have exacerbated the problem as recycling collections were suspended at the start of the year. The industrial action also means the Council cannot currently speak to the collection crews or take action to address the problem.
25. However, the problem of missed collections clearly predates any industrial action and I would have expected the Council to have identified the issue and taken action to address it sooner. The Council has a process for identifying and addressing recurring missed collections but it does not appear to have followed it in this instance. The number of missed collections reported by Mr X and his neighbours should have highlighted there was a problem and prompted the Council to take action.
26. I recognise the Council has had operational difficulties with staffing issues and vehicle breakdowns, but this has been the case for a number of years. Given the apparent regularity with which Mr X’s road is dropped I would have expected the Council investigate whether this road was particularly affected and to take action to address this.
27. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to manage his own uncollected recycling including disposing of this himself at the recycling centre. In addition, as the missed collections affect the whole street he has also had to endure large amounts of uncollected waste on his street, over a sustained period of time.
28. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.
29. I consider the Council should apologise and make a symbolic payment to recognise the injustice caused to Mr X.
30. Given the current industrial action is it not appropriate to make recommendations regarding service improvements.

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Action

31. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £250 to recognise the frustration, and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections over a sustained period has caused.
32. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
33. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of the final decision on this complaint and provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

34. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has 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