Summary: Ms X complained the Council repeatedly missed her daughter Ms Y’s household waste collections and failed to resolve the issues despite repeated reports. The Council delivered a poor service, failed to resolve reported issues, and issued a poor response to Ms X’s complaint about this. This caused avoidable distress to Ms Y because of a loss of service, and avoidable distress, time, and trouble to Ms X in complaining on her behalf. The Council agreed to apologise, pay a financial remedy to Ms Y and Ms X, and monitor Ms Y’s bin collections to resolve any issues. It will also issue staff reminders, review how it keeps records of missed bin reports, and ensure proper oversight of the review that its third-party waste contractor is carrying out about failings in the service.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains on behalf of her daughter Ms Y, that the Council repeatedly missed her household waste collections from mid-2023 onwards. Ms X says the Council did not resolve the issues despite repeated reports and gave a poor response to her complaint about this. She says this caused distress and frustration to both her and her daughter.
2. Ms X wants the Council to:
• provide an apology from its Chief Executive;
• compensate her daughter for the distress and inconvenience caused;
• reverse its October 2023 decision to impose a new bin collection point, which she says did not resolve the issues and causes her daughter inconvenience having to take her bin further from her house;
• review how it manages its waste collection service contract with its third-party provider; and
• review how it handles reports and complaints about missed bin collections and provide training to staff about this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. We may investigate complaints made on behalf of someone else if they have given their consent. (Local Government Act 1974, section 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. 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, sections 24A(1)(A) and 25(7), as amended). When a council commissions or arranges for another organisation to provide services, we treat actions taken by or on behalf of that organisation as actions taken on behalf of the council and in the exercise of the council’s functions.
7. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
8. 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

9. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council, and relevant law, policy and guidance.
10. Ms 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

Legislation and guidance

11. 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.
12. Councils are not required by law to collect garden waste, and so they may charge a collection fee for doing so. It is for each council to decide what the fee should be.
13. Councils normally expect people to move their bins to the pavement in front of their property, to allow it to be easily collected. However, a council may decide to provide an assisted collection to a person if they cannot move their bins because of a disability.

The Council’s domestic waste collection policies and procedures

14. The Council carries out three collections for refuse, recycling, and garden waste. All of these take place fortnightly. It contracts these services out to a third-party provider, Organisation Z.
15. The Council’s domestic refuse collection policy says:
• “all bins are to be presented correctly at the kerbside or at a designated collection point… unless a resident receives an Assisted Collection Service”. The Council’s website also provides guidelines for putting bins out for collection, which says bins should be put out “at the kerbside”; and
• “where a bin has been presented correctly but has not been emptied, the Council will return to empty the bin the next working day, providing the report of a missed collection has been made within three working days of the original scheduled collection”.
16. The garden waste service is optional, and the Council charges a fee for those who opt in to the service. The terms and conditions say if someone has paid by credit or debit card, they have a right to cancel within 10 working days of the subscription date and get a full refund. However, if they have received a collection within this period a refund will not apply.

What happened

17. Ms X’s daughter, Ms Y, shares a private driveway with several neighbours. Residents of the shared driveway used to leave their bins next to their properties, along the private driveway. Ms Y began reporting issues with her bin collections in June 2023.
18. In October 2023, following investigations into Ms Y’s reports, the Council told Ms Y and her neighbours it had decided to impose a new bin collection point. This was to ensure residents left their bins in one place, at the kerbside next to the road, at the end of the shared driveway.
19. Ms X told me Ms Y continued to report missed collections consistently following the October 2023 change of collection point.
20. From June 2024, Ms X started to report missed collections on Ms Y’s behalf, as she had offered to help her deal with the issues. From this point the dealings with the Council were all by Ms X.
21. In August 2024, Ms X complained to the Council. She said there had been continuous issues with missed bin collections since the new collection point in October 2023, and the Council had failed to resolve the repeated reports about this. The Council responded at Stage 1 of its complaints’ procedure in September 2024. It said:
• its bin crews only collect bins presented at the kerbside unless someone has agreed an assisted collection, and this was in line with its domestic refuse collection policy;
• there was a known issue with the garden waste collection in Ms Y’s area. Its vehicles did not have capacity for the number of addresses on Ms Y’s bin route, so could not complete the full route on collection day. It had asked Organisation Z to rotate the order of the route to ensure it did not continually miss the same streets due to the vehicles being full towards the end;
• vehicle capacity was also affecting Ms Y’s refuse and recycling collections. There were various other issues affecting this including limits on driving and working hours for the bin crews, vehicle breakdowns, and road closures. Where a route does not complete on schedule, Organisation Z tries to arrange a spare bin crew to complete this on the same or next day, but this was dependent on availability. Organisation Z was carrying out a “re-mapping exercise” of all the bin routes that it was failing to complete on schedule. However, this was “a significantly large and complex task” and would “take some time to complete”;
• where people report a missed collection, the Council refers this to Organisation Z to ensure a timely collection by the following day. Ms Y could continue to report missed collections via the Council’s website; and
• it apologised for inconvenience caused but said it could not pay compensation for the missed collections as Ms X had asked. It said it “[did] not provide compensation at this level of complaint”. It also said its bin collection service was covered by council tax payments, and “taxpayers pay a contribution to a whole range of services that the Council must provide, and the amount paid is not dependant on fluctuations in those services”.
22. A week later, Ms X escalated her complaint to Stage 2 of the Council’s complaints’ procedure. She said:
• she did not understand why the Council had imposed the new collection point because before the issues with missed collections began, it had collected from the shared driveway for a long time. Regardless, the new collection point had done nothing to resolve the issues;
• the Council should have enough capacity to complete its full bin routes, rather than accepting there would always be some streets missed on each route. Regardless, Ms Y’s garden waste collection was missed this week so the interim solution to rotate the route had not worked; and
• the garden waste collection was an extra service Ms Y was paying for, separate to her council tax. This service was not delivered so she should be refunded.
23. The Council decided to issue a further response at Stage 1 of its complaints’ procedure in October 2024. The Council:
• repeated what it said previously about bins being collected at the kerbside. It said it would not change the collection point it had imposed in October 2023;
• said it had been closely monitoring Ms Y’s collections and there had been an improvement. It would continue to monitor this to ensure regular collections. It did not respond specifically to Ms X’s report that the garden waste had been missed again;
• repeated what it said previously about Organisation Z’s “re-mapping exercise”;
• restated it would not pay compensation and what it said previously about council tax. It also said it was only able to provide full refunds for the garden waste collection within 10 working days of subscription to the service. It could not provide partial refunds, and “if at least one garden waste collection has been made within the current 2024/2025 subscription year period a refund will not apply”; and
• said it would close the Stage 1 complaint if Ms X was satisfied it was resolved.
24. Ms X responded to confirm she did not want to close the complaint. She wanted this to be escalated to Stage 2. The Council issued its final complaint response in November 2024. It said:
• again that it would not change the collection point it imposed in October 2023;
• while Ms Y’s collection service may have been poor, she had a remedy available to her for this because she could report missed collections on the Council’s website. She had also still been able to benefit from other waste collection services from the Council including waste collection from public bins in streets and parks, and street cleaning services;
• since Ms X complained there had already been an improvement, so it did not uphold Ms X’s complaint that a more reliable service was needed in future; and
• repeated what it said previously about not being able to provide refunds for the garden waste service. It said Ms Y had a remedy available for poor service because she could report missed collections, or cancel the service and dispose of waste herself if she did not want to continue with it.
25. Ms X brought her complaint to the Ombudsman in late-November 2024. She told us collections improved for a month or two after she came to us but then worsened again. She began reporting missed collections again at the end of December 2024. The Council’s records showed she continued to report missed collections from January to May 2025.

What I have and have not investigated

26. Ms X complains about events from June 2023, when she says the issues with missed collections began. The law says we cannot investigate events which happened more than 12 months before somebody complained to us, unless we decide there are good reasons it took them longer to complain. Ms X first came to the Ombudsman in November 2024, so we would usually only look at what happened from November 2023.
27. Ms X said her and Ms Y continued to report missed collections consistently from June 2023 onwards. However, Ms X did not complain to the Council until August 2024, and then to us until November 2024, because she was hoping the Council would resolve the repeated reports. I decided to investigate whether the Council was at fault in its actions from October 2023 onwards, when it imposed the new collection point. Ms X could have complained to the Council, and then to us, sooner about earlier events. There are no good reasons to exercise my discretion to look back further.

My findings

October 2023 decision to impose a new bin collection point

28. The new collection point imposed by the Council did not resolve the issue of missed collections for Ms Y. The Council accepted in its response to the complaint there were various other factors affecting the service.
29. However, I found no fault with the Council’s decision to impose a new collection point itself. It asked Ms Y to leave her bins at the kerbside, at the end of the shared driveway. This was in line with its policies and was a decision it was entitled to take. The fact the Council previously collected bins from a different point on the shared driveway does not mean it was at fault for reviewing the situation and deciding it should change.

Missed collections and steps taken to resolve the issues

30. When the Council responded to my enquiries in June 2025, it said it no longer held records of reports made by Ms Y or Ms X before June 2024, so did not provide any records before this. Ms X’s complaint with the Council was ongoing from August to November 2024, and the Council then became aware of her Ombudsman complaint in February 2025. We expect councils to keep adequate records of ongoing complaints. The Council later told me its first response was wrong, and it did hold earlier archived records. I decided I did not need to see more records to reach a sound decision.
31. I found the records the Council did provide, from June 2024 onwards, were not reliable. Ms X provided evidence to us of reports made in this period which were not included in the Council’s records. The Council’s failure to keep complete and accurate records, was fault.
32. From the Council’s records and evidence from Ms X, I found that for the 52 weeks from the start of June 2024 to the end of May 2025, the Council missed at least:
• 7 out of 26 refuse collections (27%). Ms X reported missed collections in July and September 2024, and then consistently from January to May 2025;
• 6 out of 26 recycling collection (23%). Ms X reported missed collections in June, July, and December 2024, and then again in April and May 2025;
• 10 out of 26 garden waste collections (38%). Ms X reported missed collections consistently from June to September 2024, and then again in February and April 2025.
33. It is likely the Council missed more collections than this, because Ms X did not provide records covering the entire period, and the Council’s records were incomplete. Regardless of what records the Council holds, in its response to Ms X’s complaint, it accepted there were issues with all three waste collection services. Its failure to properly deliver the service over a prolonged period, and to resolve the issues despite repeated reports, was fault.
34. The Council’s records showed it often did not return the next day to empty the bin when Ms Y or Ms X reported a missed collection, as it says it will in its policy. This was fault.
35. In the Council’s October 2024 complaint response, it said it would continue to monitor Ms Y’s waste collections to ensure regular collections. However, when I asked it to provide evidence of this monitoring it only referred to records of collections from January 2025 onwards, after Ms X came to the Ombudsman. Also, the evidence provided was retrospective information about how services were delivered, which it had compiled to respond to my enquiries. It was not evidence the Council was proactively monitoring Ms Y’s collections specifically from October 2024 onwards when it said it would, to try to improve the service she received. The Council’s failure to follow up on its promised complaint actions, was fault.
36. I asked the Council about the re-mapping exercise it referred to in its response to Ms X’s complaint. I asked when this would be complete, and what the Council’s plan was if Organisation Z did not complete this and resolve the issues by a specified date. The Council said the exercise began in 2023 but gave no indication of progress or when it expected this to be complete. The Council accepts the exercise is to address wider issues with delivery of all its domestic waste collection services, going back to at least 2023, but has no proper plan for how to resolve this. The Council told me road works and parked vehicles cause issues, but there was nothing in its records to show this was the cause of any missed collections in Ms Y’s case. The Council accepted in its response to Ms X’s complaint that even without any other issues on a collection day, Organisation Z does not have capacity to complete Ms Y’s garden waste route. This is a service she and other people are paying extra for. Where people pay extra for a specified service, they are entitled to receive that service. Internal emails between the Council and Organisation Z show in August 2024, the Council identified the garden waste route was finishing around three hours earlier than the contracted finish time. It queried this with Organisation Z and asked why crews could not work until the end of the route but never received a response, and did not follow this up further.
37. The Council’s response to my enquiries did not provide assurance it kept proper oversight of how Organisation Z was delivering Ms Y’s waste collection services on its behalf. This is fault. On the balance of probabilities, I consider it likely this fault will cause injustice to others in future.
38. The poor service caused distress to Ms Y, and the failure to resolve repeated reports caused frustration to both Ms Y and Ms X.

Complaint response

39. I found fault with how the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint about these issues as follows.
• It issued a second Stage 1 complaint response which repeated what it already told Ms X in its first response. Ms X had made clear she wanted to escalate her complaint to Stage 2. This was not in line with Ms X’s wishes or the Council’s complaints’ procedure, and added avoidable delay and frustration for Ms X.
• The Stage 2 complaint response said, “while you may feel that kerbside collections have been poor”. It is clear from the Council’s Stage 1 response it knew there were issues with the service. The Council should make clear where it accepts fault in how it has delivered a service and be open to accepting and apologising for this. It should not suggest the issue is with how the complainant perceived the service.
• The Stage 2 response said Ms Y had a remedy available to her for the poor service, because she could report missed collections on its website. Ms Y and Ms X had been doing this regularly for a prolonged period. The ability to report individual missed collections, without the Council recognising and resolving repeated issues, is not a remedy. The Council should have steps in place to ensure it investigates and resolves patterns of individual reports, and should consider whether it should provide a remedy where someone complains about repeated poor service.
• The Stage 2 response also said Ms Y had still been able to benefit from other waste collection services such as collection from public bins and street cleaning services. This was not relevant or helpful in answering Ms X’s complaint.
• The Council said it could not provide a financial remedy for the repeated missed collections because its refuse and recycling collection service is funded by council tax payments. I accept it is not suitable for the Council to offer refunds of council tax based on changes in quality of the services covered by that tax. However, this does not mean it cannot consider whether it should offer a financial remedy via its complaints’ procedure where someone has complained about distress caused by a loss of service.
• The Council also said it could not refund Ms Y for the extra garden waste service she paid for. The Council’s interpretation of its terms and conditions, that “if at least one garden waste collection has been made within the current 2024/2025 subscription year period a refund will not apply”, was wrong. The terms and conditions should not mean there is no remedy available where the quality-of-service declines after the 10-day cooling off period. Where someone complains and the Council accepts it has delivered a poor service, it should consider whether it should offer a financial remedy for distress caused by a loss of service. I also do not agree with the Council’s suggestion that it should not resolve issues with, and provide a remedy for, poor service, simply because users can cancel their subscription if they are unhappy with it.
40. The Council’s fault in responding to Ms X’s complaint compounded her distress and caused her avoidable time and trouble. The Council should remedy the injustice caused.

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Action

41. Within one month of our final decision the Council will:
1. apologise to Ms Y and Ms X for the faults identified and the impact of those faults. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making its apology;
2. pay Ms Y £300 to recognise the avoidable distress caused by the loss of service and failure to resolve repeated reports from October 2023 to May 2025;
3. pay Ms X £300 to recognise the avoidable distress, time, and trouble caused by the failure to resolve repeated reports, and poor response to her complaint;
4. issue a reminder to relevant staff, or Organisation Z if it considers this necessary, about its policy that it will return the next day to empty a bin where a missed collection is reported; and
5. share a copy of our final decision with all staff involved in responding to Ms X’s complaint. It will highlight the faults identified with the complaint response in this case and the importance of being open to accepting fault and considering a remedy for any injustice caused.
42. Within three months of our final decision the Council will:
1. evidence it has carried out continuous monitoring of Ms Y’s bin collections from the point of our final decision, for at least twelve weeks. It will need to show which collections were missed, the reasons for this, and actions taken to both:
1. ensure the missed bin was then collected in good time; and
2. resolve wider issues to prevent future occurrences.
2. consider how it keeps records of missed bin reports, working with Organization Z if needed, and decide what changes are needed to ensure:
1. it keeps complete and accurate records of all missed collections; and
2. relevant records can easily be accessed where someone has an ongoing or recent complaint about missed collections.
3. create a dated action plan for when it expects Organisation Z to complete and implement its review (re-mapping exercise) of all the bin rounds failing to complete on schedule. This will include what steps the Council will take to resolve issues with its domestic waste collection services if Organisation Z does not complete the review and address the issues by the expected date. The Council will share the action plan and our final decision with the appropriate overview and scrutiny committee, inviting it to monitor progress of the action plan and consider lessons learnt about contract management and complaint handling.
43. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

44. I find fault causing injustice. The Council agreed to my recommendations for actions it should take to remedy this injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman