Summary: Mr X complained about the position the Council places his bin after it is emptied. We decided to end our investigation as further investigation would not lead to a different outcome than the Council already provided and there is insufficient significant personal injustice to warrant further investigation. 

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council sometimes leaves his recycling bin in front of his garage. This means in order to access the back path behind his house he has to open his garage door against the empty bins.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
3. 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:
• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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

6. Mr X’s bins are collected by the Council at the back of his property along a path. Mr X has a garage which runs the width of his back garden and the garage door opens out onto the back path.
7. For several years Mr X has raised concerns about the Council placing his bins in front of his garage door. This means to access the pathway at the back of his property he has to open his garage door against the bin or walk around the block to access the back path.
8. In the past the Council has placed stickers on his bins to tell bin crews not to place the bins in front of his garage. Mr X has also placed signage and painted a yellow area on the floor in front of the garage to discourage bin crews from leaving his bins there.
9. Mr X said the issue is with his recycling bin which is collected every fortnight. He said after some measures were taken such as the stickers things did improve for a while.
10. In late 2024, Mr X complained to the Council about this. Mr X told the Council it was his recycling bin which was being left in front of his garage door. The Council responded to Mr X in January 2025. The Council upheld his complaint and said it would send a memo to its bin crews to tell them to place his bin in the correct place. The Council also said its monitoring team would carry out checks to make sure this happened.
11. Mr X said since the end of the complaints process there have been a few times when bin crews have placed his recycling bin in front of his garage. Mr X said he has not told the Council about this.

Analysis

12. The Council has recognised it was at fault for placing Mr X’s recycling bin in front of his garage. It has taken action to prevent this from happening in the future by telling the bin crews to put the bin in a designated place. This is the kind of outcome we would expect to achieve from this kind of complaint. Further investigation would unlikely achieve a different outcome for Mr X so we will not investigate further.
13. I am also not satisfied the injustice caused from the fault by the Council is sufficient enough to warrant further investigation. I recognise the bin being placed in front of Mr X’s garage would cause annoyance, however the bin is empty and Mr X also has the option of walking around the row of houses to access the path behind his property.

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Decision

14. I have ended my investigation into Mr X’s complaint because:
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome than that already provided; and
• the matters complained of cause insufficient significant personal injustice to warrant us investigating; 

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman