Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed refuse collections between September and December 2024, and since January 2025. The alleged fault has not caused a significant enough injustice, we cannot investigate matters which affect all or most people in the Council’s area, and it is not a good use of our resources to look at the complaints process in isolation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about missed refuse collections between September and December 2024, and that no waste has been collected since January 2025. He also complains about the Council’s handling of his associated Stage 2 complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We can 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. So, we do not start an investigation if we decide:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

4. With regard to the bullet points above, our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
5. We also 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)
6. And it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council, which included information about when Mr X reported missed collections between September and December 2024
8. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. I understand Mr X’s block of flats is supposed to receive two to three collections per week. Mr X reported five missed collections across September and October 2024. The Council explains that two other collections reported as missed by Mr X in December 2024 were not actually missed, but instead moved to a different collection day due to the Christmas collections schedule.
10. We appreciate missed collections are annoying, frustrating, and inconvenient. But the Ombudsman needs to make sure we use public money effectively.
11. On balance, the level of injustice caused by the handful of missed collections in September and October 2024 is not, from the Ombudsman’s perspective, significant enough to justify starting an investigation into that part of the complaint.
12. And with regard to the lack of collections since January 2025, I understand this was caused by ongoing industrial action. With reference to paragraph 5 above, as this is something which affects all or most people in the Council’s area, we cannot investigate this part of the complaint. This is the case even if the impact of the strikes was not uniform across the whole area.
13. As we are not investigating Mr X concerns about the missed collections, it would not be a good use of our resources to investigate the Council’s Stage 2 complaint handling in isolation.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the alleged fault has not caused a significant enough injustice, we cannot investigate matters which affect all or most people in the Council’s area, and it is not a good use of resources to look at the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman