Summary: Miss X complained the Council did not collect her garden waste on multiple occasions even though she had been accepted for assisted collections. We did not find enough evidence of fault by the Council. Miss X has the right to bring the matter to the attention of a court if she believes the Council’s actions amounts to a breach of contact.

The complaint

1. Miss X is entitled to assisted bin collections. She complained the Council failed to collect all her garden waste collections for a year unless she reported a missed collection or stopped the bin vehicle herself.
2. Miss X also complained the Council did not properly record or investigate her complaints about the matter.
3. Miss X says the missed collections have led to additional costs and caused distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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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What I have and have not investigated

6. I have investigated Miss X’s complaint from April 2024 to March 2025. The starting date for her annual garden waste subscription to the Council’s final complaint response.
7. I have not investigated whether the Council was in breach of contract for any missed collections. This is a matter for the courts.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Miss 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

Household waste and recycling collections

10. Councils, as local waste collection authorities, have a duty to collect domestic waste and recycling from households. This is set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
11. 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 are unable to move their bins because of a disability. Under an assisted collection, the crew enter the property boundary, such as a garden or driveway, to collect the bins. They then return them to their storage point afterwards.
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. The Ombudsman issued a focus report in 2017: ‘Lifting the Lid on Bin complaints: learning to improve waste and recycling services.’ (Focus Report)

The Council’s garden waste collection service

14. The Council offers an annual garden waste collection service where it will empty subscribers bins every two weeks. The annual fee is £57.50.
15. The Council publishes terms and conditions for its garden waste collection service on its website. Subscriptions run from 1 April to 31 March, and for missed collections the Council policy states:
• the missed bin must be reported within 3 days of the normal collection day, any reports after this time, will not be collected until the next scheduled collection day; and
• refunds will not be given for missed collections.
16. The Council has a policy which sets out who may be eligible for an assisted collection. The policy explains how the process works and that waste will be collected from and returned to the normal storage place.

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What happened

17. Miss X has received the Council’s assisted waste collections service since 7 July 2022. She paid for a subscription for garden waste collections in 2024 after deciding she could no longer dispose of any garden waste herself.
18. Miss X logged a complaint with customer services on 19 November 2024. She said she was entitled to assisted collection and always placed her garden bin at the front of her property. She said that all garden waste collections had been missed for a year except any that she reported or where she had ‘chased’ the bin vehicle.
19. On the 21 November 2024 the Council sent an acknowledgement and said it had passed it to the operations department.
20. Miss X said she made biweekly phone calls to the Council to report missed garden bin collections and made written complaints on the 17 February 2025, 18 February 2025, 1 March 2025 and 3 March 2025. Miss X requested the Council provide a discounted or refunded service for the next year’s subscription.
21. In March 2025 the Council responded to Miss X’s complaint, it said:
• it only had 2 missed collections reported on its system in July 2024 and November 2024. It said it had no further communication from Miss X about assisted collection issues;
• it regretted any inconvenience caused; and
• it advised it would continue to monitor Miss X’s collections closely and for Miss X to report collection issues as soon as possible.
22. Miss X told the Council that it would only have 2 reported missed bin collections on its system as its policy did not allow for her to report a missed collection 3 days post collection date. She said that her disability meant it was rare that she could leave her property to check her bin had been collected. Miss X escalated her complaint.
23. The Council sent its final complaint response shortly after. It said:
• it did not have a formal written complaint on its system made on the 19 November 2024 rather a service request/ missed bin form. Therefore, had not been able to escalate it as a complaint. It advised how to make formal complaints.
• the 3-day reporting policy could not be changed. It said it recognised her challenges for checking her bin in this timeframe and to contact customer services for assistance in future.
• it encouraged all residents to reports issues as soon as they became aware of them to allow investigation and appropriate action.
• its policy does not allow for refunds and discounts for missed bin collections.
• a reliable service was important, and it regretted any inconvenience Miss X had experienced.
24. I asked the Council about Miss X’s biweekly phone calls and reports to customer services about her missed garden waste collections. It said that it was only able to locate one phone call made in the last thirteen months and there were no notes or forms completed by its customer services.
25. The Council advised assisted collections are monitored through an in-vehicle device and crews are required to radio call managers once assisted bins had been collected.

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Analysis

26. Miss X says the Council has regularly failed to collect her bins over the period of her 2024/ 2025 annual subscription. She did not have a subscription for the full year. Our focus report ‘Lifting the Lid on Bin Complaints’ says, councils cannot guarantee there will never be a missed collection. However, people are entitled to expect councils, to quickly respond to reports of missed collections and take effective action to deal with problems.
27. The Council responded to the two recorded reported missed collections within 3 days of the reports. I therefore find the Council acted quickly to resolve the matter.
28. The Ombudsman makes decisions on the balance of probabilities. There are no independent witnesses, recordings of telephone calls or evidence of missed collections other than those formally recorded on the Council’s missed bin system. I have not seen evidence of more than the 2 missed collections; therefore, I am unable to make a finding of fault on this part of the complaint.
29. The Council’s garden waste collection terms and conditions for the relevant period clearly state that it will not issue a refund for missing a collection.
30. Miss X argues the Council is in breach of contract for the missed collections. That is not something the Ombudsman can decide. Only the Courts can make a finding on breach of contract.

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Decision

31. I have completed my investigation with a finding of not enough fault by the Council.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman