London Borough of Southwark (24 016 858)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed household waste and recycling collections. This is because any injustice caused is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complains that the Council has failed to collect his household waste and recycling on multiple occasions. Mr X says the matter has created unhygienic conditions and impacted his quality of life. Mr X would like compensation for the stress, as well as an apology.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X has told us there were four missed collections between August and December 2024. He says he complained to the Council, but it has not acted to resolve the issue. Mr X has not reported any further missed collections.
- Our Assessment Code states we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of Council fault, or there are continuous and ongoing instances of a lower-level injustice that remain unresolved over a longer period of time.
- In this case, the missed collections are infrequent and do not appear to be ongoing. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice caused by the missed collections is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice caused is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman