Summary: Ms X complained the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household recycling from May 2023 to January 2025. We find the Council at fault for the missed collections, which caused Ms X frustration and inconvenience. The Council has apologised to Ms X, which is a suitable remedy for her injustice. Therefore, we have not recommended anything further.

The complaint

1. Ms X says the Council has failed to provide a consistent recycling service since 2023. Although the Council agreed to monitor the collections, the service remained unreliable until January 2025. This issue caused her frustration, and she spent significant time and effort reporting the missed collections.

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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)
4. 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)

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What I have and have not investigated

5. We expect complainants to come to us within 12 months of becoming aware of an issue. Ms X complained to us in February 2025. Therefore, matters that arose before February 2024 are considered late. I am satisfied there are no good reasons why Ms X did not bring her earlier concerns to us sooner. I will therefore be investigating matters that occurred between February 2024 and February 2025.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council, as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
7. 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

Refuse and recycling collections

8. 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.
9. Councils normally expect people to move their bins to the pavement in front of their property for collection (unless they have assisted collections).
10. The Council’s practice is to collect the paper and cardboard recycling (blue) bins every three weeks for collection.

What happened

11. This is a summary of key events and is not intended to detail everything that happened.
12. Ms X said that since May 2023, her blue recycling bin, sometimes along with her neighbour’s recycling, had been repeatedly missed for collection. Ms X said she reported each missed collection to the Council.
13. In August 2024, Ms X sent a stage one complaint to the Council about the missed collections.
14. In September, the Council provided a stage one response which said it would arrange for a supervisor to monitor the next few collections.
15. On 30 September, Ms X reported another missed collection of her recycling.
16. In October, Ms X then escalated her complaint to stage two of the Council’s complaints process. She said despite monitoring, the Council was still not collecting her blue bin according to the schedule.
17. The Council’s operations manager contacted Ms X to discuss the issues and explained the measures the Council intended to put into place to resolve the situation. These measures were:

• Having a supervisor attend the site on each collection date for two months.
• The crew providing confirmation of the collections after the initial two months and sending photos to the supervisor to show Ms X’s bin had been emptied on collection days.

18. The Council issued its stage two complaints response the following week. It:

• Apologised for the poor level of service.
• Confirmed the measures in paragraph 17 were in place.
• Confirmed if it missed any collections it would send crew back the same day to empty the bin.

19. Ms X said that since the Council’s stage two complaint response, the Council missed a further three collections. She said the final missed collection occurred in late January 2025.
20. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in February 2025.
21. I understand Ms X has now moved away from the Council’s area.

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Analysis

22. The Council accepted it missed Ms X’s recycling collections on four occasions between May 2024 and January 2025. This is fault.
23. I understand Ms X says the Council missed more than four collections. The Council’s records show there were some occasions where either Ms X or one of her neighbours had reported missed recycling collections for the street. I have seen evidence that suggests on these dates, bins presented correctly were either confirmed as emptied or were not due for collection. Ms X has not provided any evidence to support her comments. Therefore, based on the available evidence, I find it more likely than not the Council did not miss any further collections.
24. Ms X provided three dates where the Council missed collections following its stage two response, which I cross referenced with the Council’s records. Of the three dates, one collection was confirmed as completed and another did not match the Council’s collection schedule. This meant the Council did not miss the bin as it was not due for collection. The Council explained that the final date, in January 2025, was due to confusion as Ms X had two blue bins and did not present them both for collection. The Council returned the same day to empty the second recycling bin. The Council quickly resolved the matter and so its failure to collect the bin at the right time did not cause Ms X a significant injustice.
25. I am satisfied the Council took suitable action in response to Ms X’s complaint, including actively monitoring her collections and sending a supervisor to attend the property with the crew on collection days. I understand the operations manager would also call Ms X to check her bins had been collected. On the occasions it had not collected recycling as scheduled, the Council would send the crew back out to empty the bin. This is the response I would expect to see from the Council, and I do not see any reason to recommend any service improvements.
26. I consider the Council’s fault caused Ms X an injustice. She spent avoidable time and trouble reporting the issue, which was a source of frustration for her. The Council has already remedied this injustice by apologising to her and I therefore do not have any further recommendations to make.

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Decision

27. I have now completed my investigation. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has apologised to Ms X which is a satisfactory remedy.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman