Summary: Mr B complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his waste on the scheduled days. He also complained about the Council’s complaint-handling. The Council was at fault for the repeated failure to collect Mr B’s waste on the scheduled days and keep a record of its monitoring of Mr B’s waste collections. It was also at fault for its poor complaint-handling. Because of the fault, Mr B suffered frustration and uncertainty, and it meant he continued to contact the Council to report the missed collections. The Council has agreed to make a symbolic payment, issue staff briefings, and send us evidence of an investigation it says it is carrying out.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains about the Council’s repeated failure to collect his waste and appropriately respond to his reports of the missed collections. He also complains about the Council’s complaint-handling.
2. Mr B says the Council’s actions have caused him frustration, and the missed collections are causing waste to overflow and attract vermin. He says he has to take his waste to the tip which causes his car to smell, and he constantly has to monitor the waste and collections.
3. Mr B would like the Council to provide a financial remedy and a permanent fix, so the problem does not continue.

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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 investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), 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(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

8. As outlined in paragraph 6, we cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Mr B says the issue he complains of was ongoing for three years. Part of the complaint is therefore late, and there are no good reasons to exercise discretion to investigate events going back to three years ago.
9. I have therefore investigated matters in this case from November 2023, 12 months before Mr B complained to us, to April 2025, when the Council sent Mr B its stage two complaint response. I reference matters outside of these dates for context.

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How I considered this complaint

10. I read Mr B’s complaint and spoke to him about it on the phone.
11. I considered evidence provided by Mr B and the Council, as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
12. Mr 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

Household waste and recycling collections

13. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
14. The Council’s practice is to make a weekly food waste collection and a fortnightly general waste collection. It also makes fortnightly recycling collections on alternate weeks for plastics, glass, cans and cartons on one week, and paper and card on the second week. A contractor makes the collections on behalf of the Council.
15. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Council says the report is raised on its system which is integrated with the contractor’s system. It says the contractor receives notification of the missed collection report and is expected to take appropriate action to resolve it.
16. The Council says when it monitors reports of missed collections, the monitoring typically takes place over a six-week period. It says it also keeps the resident informed during this period.

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What happened

17. This is a summary of events outlining key facts and it does not include everything that has happened in this case.
18. Mr B says the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his waste on the scheduled days. According to the Council’s records, Mr B reported 13 missed collections between December 2023 and January 2025.
19. In Summer 2024, Mr B raised a complaint with the Council. He told it:
• He had been reporting the collection crew’s failure to consistently collect his waste for the last three years and the issue remained.
• Waste builds up after a missed collection, meaning the crew sometimes refuse to collect the waste due to overfilled bins.
• The waste was attracting rats and foxes.
20. The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint. It apologised on behalf of the contractor for the poor service Mr B had received. The Council also told Mr B it had outlined the collection issues to management at the contractor to ensure the issue did not continue.
21. In early 2025, Mr B raised a stage two complaint with the Council. He told it despite the Council’s assurance the problem would be monitored, the issue continued. The Council told Mr B he was out of time to escalate his complaint to stage two of its complaint procedure. Mr B told the Council this was unfair as he followed the Council’s instruction to use the reporting tool to report the missed collections, rather than the complaint procedure.
22. The Council responded to Mr B’s complaint at stage two in April 2025. It told him:
• Despite assurances from the Waste Service, the problems with the collections persisted and meaningful steps were not put in place to prevent future occurrences.
• The Council deeply regrets the repeated failures were not acknowledged by it with an appropriate apology and that the impact to Mr B was not properly addressed. It apologised to Mr B for the distress and inconvenience caused to him.
• The Council recognised it did not escalate Mr B’s complaint as it should have, and it provided minimal follow-up, which added to his frustration.
• Moving forward, the Council would implement improved monitoring of Mr B’s waste collections over the following six weeks and provide regular updates to him.
23. I spoke to Mr B in September 2025, and he told me the collections had been perfect since he brought his complaint to us, apart from one collection where he did not wheel his bin out to the road to be collected. But given the problem had been ongoing for three years, he wanted his injustice to be addressed.

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Analysis

24. It is clear from the Council’s records it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr B’s waste, despite assurances the service would improve. The continued failure to collect Mr B’s waste as scheduled was fault. This meant Mr B had to repeatedly report the missed collections and raise complaints with the Council. This caused frustration and uncertainty to him as he could not trust the service would improve.
25. The Council says it monitored Mr B’s waste collections; however, it did not keep a record on its monitoring system to evidence this. Mr B says the Council also did not keep him informed about the monitoring. The Council’s failure to evidence its monitoring of Mr B’s waste collections was poor record-keeping and was fault. This causes uncertainty about what level of monitoring took place. The Council told me it is currently reviewing this under a separate investigation.
26. There was also fault in the way the Council handled Mr B’s complaint. It did not escalate Mr B’s complaint as it should have. The Council has acknowledged this in its stage two complaint response and recognises that this further added to Mr B’s frustration.
27. In similar cases, we would usually recommend the Council monitor waste collections and provide us with evidence of this, to ensure the collections are carried out on the scheduled days. However, as Mr B says the collections improved in the period before this, I have not asked the Council to do this. I also have not asked the Council to apologise to Mr B, as it has already done so in its stage two complaint response, which I consider to be appropriate.
28. 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.
29. 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 financial 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 service would have been to the provider.

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Action

30. To remedy the outstanding injustice caused to Mr B by the fault I have identified, within four weeks of my final decision, the Council will pay Mr B £250 to acknowledge the frustration and uncertainty caused by the missed collections and poor complaint-handling.
31. Within three months of my final decision, the Council will also:
• Issue a staff briefing to remind relevant staff of the importance of record-keeping when monitoring collections. The Council should ensure clear records are kept of any monitoring it carries out, so it can evidence these actions in future if needed.
• Issue a staff briefing to remind relevant staff of the importance of appropriately escalating and responding to complaints where the issues complained of persist.
• Send us evidence of the investigation it says it is carrying out about the failure to keep records of the monitoring that was carried out in this case, and the outcome of the investigation.
32. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

33. I uphold Mr B’s complaint and find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman