Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed bin collections before and during industrial strike action. We have no jurisdiction to investigate matters which affect all or most people in the Council’s area, and the missed collection before the strike action does not cause a significant enough injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains his block of flats has had consistently poor waste collections, even before the ‘all-out’ strike action.
2. He says the residents’ bin storage has been overwhelmed, and they have had to suffer smells and vermin. This caused them to use their own money to pay for skips and the removal of the accumulating rubbish.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. In that regard, 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 by an organisation.
6. And we 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mr X’s representative and the Council. This included information about when residents have reported missed collections since mid‑2024.
8. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

9. The Ombudsman appreciates that missed collections are annoying, frustrating and inconvenient. But mistakes can happen and from time to time, and most people will experience the occasional missed collection. We need to make sure we use public money efficiently, so we would not investigate complaints where there have been just a couple of missed collections, as there is insufficient injustice to warrant pursuing the matter further. Here, the information from the Council shows that between July and December 2024, only one missed collection was reported, in September 2024. We therefore will not investigate this part of the complaint, because the fault does not cause a significant enough injustice.
10. And, with reference to paragraph 6 above, we cannot investigate the parts of the complaint about missed refuse collections since January 2025, as these were caused by ongoing industrial action which has affected all or most people in the Council’s area. A large proportion of the Council’s residents have experienced missed collections, and have reported rubbish building up locally with bins overflowing, rubbish on the streets, unpleasant odours and vermin.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the missed collection in September 2024 does not cause a significant enough injustice, and we cannot investigate matters which have affected all or most people in the Council’s area.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman