Summary: Ms Y complained about the Council’s ongoing failures with the provision of her assisted bin collection service. We have found fault, causing injustice, by the Council, in failing to provide Ms Y with a reliable and consistent assisted bin collection service. The Council has agreed to remedy this by: apologising; making a payment to reflect the upset caused; carry out further monitoring of Ms Y’s service; and a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Ms Y complains about the Council’s ongoing failures with the provision of her assisted bin collection service. She says the collection crews repeatedly fail to collect and empty her bins. Her disabled son, who lives with her, is doubly incontinent and it is crucial her bins are emptied at each collection. She has to contact the Council every time a collection is missed and wait for operatives to return to empty the bins.
2. Ms Y wants the Council to pay redress for the upset and inconvenience caused by the missed collections and put in place a robust long-term system to ensure assisted bin collections, including hers, are not missed on collection days.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these.
4. 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(1), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

What should have happened

Household waste 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, 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 will enter the person’s property, such as their garden or driveway, to collect the bins, and then return them to their storage place afterwards.

What happened

10. The Council provides Ms Y with an assisted bin collection service. On her street’s collection day, the crew are supposed to collect her bin from the agreed point in the front garden and return it there once it has been emptied.
11. Ms Y previously experienced problems with the Council’s assisted collection service in 2018. She brought a complaint about this to us, which we upheld. Ms Y then experienced further problems in 2024. The crew failed, on a number of occasions, to collect and empty her bin on the street’s collection day. She had to then report each missed collection to the Council and wait for its operatives to return to put this right.
12. Ms Y complained to the Council about the missed collections. In its response to her complaint in September 2024 the Council said:

• it hoped collections had now settled down to a reasonable service and the correct bins were being emptied on the correct days without her having to phone it: and
• the crews and supervisors had all been told to monitor her collections to ensure they took place at the same time as the rest of her street. This should ensure there were no failures going forward.

13. Ms Y reported further missed collections in December 2024, and two further missed collections in March 2025.
14. She complained to us in April 2025 about the Council’s failure to provide her with a reliable assisted bin collection service.
15. In its response to the complaint to us, the Council said:

• its crews use a tablet system to flag the assisted collections on each street;
• two further collections for Ms Y were missed in July and August 2025; and
• it did not record its monitoring of Ms Y’s collections. It had face-to-face conversations with the crew after the completion of the round to check Ms Y’s bin was collected, or if not, why.

My decision – was there fault by the Council causing injustice?

16. The Council has failed to provide Ms Y with a reliable and consistent assisted bin collection service since 2024. It often fails to collect and empty her bin on her street’s collection days. This failure is fault.
17. Due to the nature and amount of waste in the bin, it is important for Ms Y and her household the bin is emptied each collection day. The repeated failure to do so causes Ms Y concern about the bin being emptied on collection day and frustration and upset when it isn’t, requiring her to contact the Council to report this.
18. The tablet system the Council says its crews use to alert them to assisted collections on each street does not appear to be a reliable way for ensuring Ms Y’s assisted collections are not missed. This may also be causing issues for other residents relying on the assisted collection service.

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Action

19. To remedy the injustice caused by the above fault, and within four weeks from the date of our final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. apologise to Ms Y for the worry, frustration and upset caused by its failure to provide her with a reliable assisted bin collection service. This apology should be in line with our guidance on Making an effective apology;
2. pay Ms Y £100 to recognise the upset and frustration caused by the Council’s  failure, as a symbolic amount based on our  guidance on remedies ; and
3. monitor Ms Y’s collections for an eight week period.
20. And within eight weeks from the date of our final decision the Council should produce an action plan to identify ways of:
1. improving its assisted bin collection service for Ms Y; and
2. ensuring all assisted collections on its crews’ routes are properly completed on each collection day.
21. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

22. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to take the above action to remedy the injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman