Summary: Mrs X complained that although she should receive assisted collections the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste despite collecting her neighbours’ waste. We found the repeated failures in the assisted collection service the Council provided to Mrs X is fault. As Mrs X is unable to dispose of the waste herself she has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste left at her property for an extended period of time. The Council will apologise and make a payment to Miss X.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that although she should receive assisted collections the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her household waste despite collecting her neighbours’ waste throughout 2025.

Back to top

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. 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)
4. In January 2025 the Council’s waste collection crews began industrial action. This began with specific strike days each week when waste would not be collected. Then from 11 March 2025 it became an all-out strike. The Council suspended recycling collections when industrial action began and then declared a major incident on 31 March 2025 to address the impact of the industrial action. This has resulted in missed collections for a large proportion of the Council’s residents.
5. Mrs X has complained of missed collections during the strike action but we have investigated her complaint as she appears to be affected more than most. Mrs X should receive assisted collections which have been missed while her neighbour’s waste has been regularly collected during the strike action.
6. 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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

Back to top

What I found

Refuse and recycling collections

9. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
10. The Council's general practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection. This practice has been amended during the industrial action.
11. The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
12. Under normal circumstances when a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report. The Council has stopped actioning reports of missed collections during the industrial action.

What happened here

13. Mrs X complains the Council has failed to collect her household waste since January 2025. She says collections crews have regularly visited her street throughout the industrial action and emptied her neighbours’ bins but missed hers. Mrs X should receive assisted collections and is unable to move the bins to the edge of her property for collection herself.
14. The Council’s records show Mrs X reported 27 missed collections between January and November 2025. The Council has closed all of these reports save for the first two and the last one, without taking any action due to the industrial action.
15. Mrs X made a formal complaint about the missed collections in May 2025. She questioned why, when the Council described assisted collections as a priority service, her waste had not been collected for six weeks, while her neighbours’ waste had been collected twice in the last week.
16. The Council responded the following week and apologised for any inconvenience. It said it had alerted the depot to Mrs X’s concerns so that a manager could speak to the crew and ensure Mrs X’s waste was being collected.
17. This did not resolve the problem so Mrs X contacted the Council again to advise the crew had missed a further two collections, while collecting her neighbours’ waste. The Council told Mrs X it was not progressing complaints about missed collections due to the industrial action. It said actions by pickets was again preventing its vehicles from leaving the depots which affected collections across the city.
18. Mrs X reiterated that her complaint was not about missed collections due to industrial action. Her complaint related to failings in the assisted collection service. The Council was collecting waste from the rest of her street but not was emptying her bin as she could not present her bin at the side of the road.
19. Mrs X made further complaints about missed collections in June and early July 2025. She noted she had reported 15 missed collections while her neighbours’ rubbish was collected every week and questioned whether the collection crew were aware of her assisted collections. The Council confirmed Mrs X was registered for assisted collections and it had escalated the matter with the depot and asked for the waste to be collected.
20. The Council emptied Mrs X’s bin and collected the accumulated waste on 14 July 2025. But it continued to miss Mrs X’s bin during the subsequent weekly collections. Mrs X continued to report missed collections and made further complaints. In October 2025 Mrs X complained she had now reported 26 missed collections but the Council had only collected her rubbish three times. She said her bin was full and she had several bags of accumulated waste which had attracted rats.
21. In response to my enquiries the Council says there are two main ways it notifies collection crews of assisted collections on their routes. Firstly, assisted collections are shown on the crew’s tablets, and secondly, in case of technical issues with the tablet, the depot produces a hard copy of the assisted collection list which it gives to each crew.
22. This process is the same whether or not the crew are agency and has remained the same during the industrial action. The Council refers to the assisted collections as a priority service as they are deemed an essential service that will continue during industrial action as long as there is vehicle and staff availability to do so. However, there are no special arrangements for assisted collections such as individual rounds just for assisted collections.
23. The Council says it stopped investigating and actioning reports of missed collections in January 2025 as roads were being missed on a regular basis due to the industrial action. It said it was only able to get limited crews out of the depot every day and that these crews could not complete full rounds leading to excessive dropped work.

Analysis

24. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mrs X’s household waste in line with its assisted collection service throughout 2025. These failings in the service amount to fault.
25. Details of Mrs X’s assisted collections should appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and in the crew packs. It is therefore unclear why Mrs X’s household waste was repeatedly missed when her neighbours’ waste was collected. All collection crews, whether they are the regular crew or a replacement crew, are provided with details of assisted collections on the route so the service should not have been impacted in this way by the industrial action. When crews attended Mrs X’s road they should have collected Mrs X’s household waste along with her neighbours’.
26. I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council responded to Mrs X’s complaints and correspondence. It is disappointing that the Council told Mrs X that missed collections were due to the industrial action and pickets preventing its vehicles from leaving the depots. Mrs X’s complaints were clear in explaining that the crews were routinely visiting her street and emptied her neighbours’ bins but missed her. The Council’s responses suggest it had not properly read or considered Mrs X’s complaints and instead issued generic responses.
27. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Mrs X a significant injustice. Mrs X says the service improved at the end of 2025, and fewer collections were missed. This improvement is to be welcomed but should have happened sooner.
28. Mrs X is unable to dispose of the waste herself and has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste left at her property for an extended period of time. The accumulated waste is unpleasant and attracts rodents. Mrs X has also experienced frustration and disappointment that despite her complaints and reporting of problems the missed collections continued. She has also been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter.

Back to top

Action

29. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £400 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste collections has caused.
30. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
31. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of the final decision on this complaint and provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

Back to top

Decision

32. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed actions to remedy injustice.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman