Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling waste as scheduled since July 2024. We found the Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling when collecting his neighbours’ is fault. This fault has caused Mr X frustration and inconvenience. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council has failed to collect his recycling as scheduled since July 2024. This has led to an accumulation of waste which he had to dispose of 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.
10. While we can investigate missed collections prior to January 2025, we will not investigate complaints about missed collections since the start of the industrial action. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)

What happened here

11. Mr X complains the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling since July 2024, despite collecting his neighbours’ recycling.
12. According to the Council’s records Mr X reported three missed collections, the first on 27 July 2024, the second on 24 September 2024 and the final one on 18 December 2024. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, they were not closed on the next scheduled collection date.
13. The Council has also provided records of some of Mr X’s calls to the Council. His call of 29 July 2024 refers to a missed collection that day, and two weeks earlier. And notes that on both occasions his neighbour’s recycling was collected.
14. The Council has not provided a record of Mr X’s call of 27 August 2024. But his email to the Council of the same date says his recycling was not collected on three out of the last four scheduled collections. Mr X again confirmed his neighbours’ bins were collected and questioned whether his was deliberately missed.
15. On 9 September 2024 Mr X contacted the Council again as neither his household waste not recycling had been collected. Mr X told the Council he had spoken to the crew who said his bins were collected by a different crew. Mr X disputed this as normal practice was for the crew to empty his bins and his neighbours’ at the same time.
16. Mr X telephoned the Council again on 10 October 2024. He was unhappy he had made a formal complaint which was marked as closed having been resolved on receipt. Mr X did not feel the matter was resolved as this was now the third month of missed collections.
17. The Council responded on 31 October 2024 and apologised for the poor level of service he had received. It said a manager was aware of the issues and had provided additional reminders to the crews to ensure collections were made as scheduled. The Council anticipated this would improve the service.
18. Mr X was not satisfied with the Council’s response so asked for his complaint to be reviewed. He again confirmed that just his bin was missed and that his recycling had not been collected since July 2024.
19. The Council reviewed Mr X’s complaint and responded in early December 2024. It again apologised for the poor service and reiterated a manager was aware and had reminded the crews to make the collections. The Council also noted Mr X had not reported a missed collection since 24 September 2024. It said collections were missed on the whole of Mr X’s road on 4 November 2024 due to operational issues but the crew had since cleared the waste.
20. As the missed collections continued, in January 2025 Mr X asked us to investigate his complaint. He said the recycling had not been collected for more than six months and the Council had not done anything to resolve this. The accumulated waste was causing Mr X stress and he had to make regular trips to the recycling centre to dispose of it.
21. In response to my enquiries the Council says it is difficult to confirm the reason for the missed collections as the collection crew are currently on strike so it is unable to speak with them. It did not carry out any monitoring of Mr X’s collections last year and is not currently monitoring collections during the industrial action.

Analysis

22. It is clear from the information available that the Council has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X recycling since July 2024. These failings in service amount to fault.
23. The Council says Mr X has only reported three missed collections, but it is clear from the documentation provided that he has contacted the Council by telephone and email about several more. I do not consider the Council’s log to be a reliable reflection of the full extent of the missed collections, or when the Council actually collected the waste.
24. The industrial action will inevitably have exacerbated the problem as the Council is not currently colleting recycling. 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 started six months before any industrial action. I would have expected the Council to have identified the issue and taken action to address it sooner.
26. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling left at his property including making regular trips to the recycling centre. 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.
27. I consider the Council should apologise and make a symbolic payment to recognise the injustice caused to Mr X.
28. Given the current industrial action is it not appropriate to make recommendations regarding service improvements.

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Action

29. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections has caused.
30. 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.
31. 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

32. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has been asked to agree actions to remedy injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman