Summary: Mrs X complained that although she should receive assisted collections the Council had repeatedly failed to collect her household waste while collecting her neighbours’. Mrs X also complained that when her bin is emptied the collection crew leave her bin on the pavement rather than return it to her property. We found the Council’s repeated failed to collect Mrs X’s household waste and return her bin in line with its assisted collection service is fault. This fault has caused Mrs X an injustice. She has had find ways to manage the uncollected her waste left at her property and has faced difficulties in retrieving her bin when it is not returned. The Council will apologise and make a symbolic payment to Mrs X.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that although she should receive assisted collections the Council had repeatedly failed to collect her household waste while collecting her neighbours’. Mrs X also complained that when her bin is emptied the collection crew leave her bin on the pavement rather than return it to her property. This causes Mrs X difficulties as she is unable to move the bins herself.

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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)

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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.

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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 says she has been registered for the Council’s assisted collection service for over three years and has had ongoing issues with the service. She says her bins are often missed when her neighbours’ are collected and she has to try and catch the crew as they pass to ensure they empty her bins. Mrs X also complains that when her bins are emptied they are not routinely returned to her property as they should be. This causes Mrs X difficulties as she is unable to move the bins herself.
14. According to the Council’s records Mrs X reported nine missed collections between November 2024 and May 2025. The Council says five of these were closed immediately as they were due to either the road being dropped or industrial action.
15. The other four reports were all prior to the industrial action when there should have been weekly collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and do not suggest the Council made the collections in a timely manner. The records also suggest the Council may also have missed other collections.
16. Mrs X reported a missed collection on 5 November 2024 which the Council closed on 11 November 2024. Mrs X also reported a missed collection on 20 November 2024 which the Council notes was due to the whole road being dropped. There is no record of when this waste was subsequently collected. She reported further missed collections on 17 and 27 December 2024 which were closed on 10 and 9 January 2025 respectively. Only the missed collection on 5 November 2024 was collected on or before the next scheduled collection. If the Council had made the collections as scheduled, it is unclear why the reports of 17 and 27 December 2024 were not closed sooner, or on the same day.
17. Mrs X made a formal complaint to the Council about the missed collections and failure to return her bins in February 2025. She told the Council she had to shout out of her window to remind the crews to collect her bins otherwise they were missed. She also complained her bins were left on the pavement rather than returned to her property. Mrs X said she had contacted the Council many times about problems with the service and had been told reminders had been sent to the crews. This had not resolved the situation and Mrs X asked the Council to take the matter further.
18. The Council responded a few days later and apologised for any inconvenience. It told Mrs X it had contacted the depot and asked them to speak to the crew/ issue reminders to ensure assisted collections were made as scheduled.
19. Mrs X was not satisfied by the Council’s response and asked for her complaint to be reviewed. She said her assisted collection should be given priority. The Council’s response said it was making every effort to make sure waste collections continued during the industrial action. This included properties that receive assistance with their collections. It said crews are provided with a list of properties and when they do attend the road Mrs X’s bin should be emptied and returned to the appropriate storage area as required. The Council asked Mrs X to contact it if this did not happen.
20. It noted Mrs X had reported four missed collections between February and April 2025. The Council said it had made managers aware of the issues and had provided crews with additional reminders. It anticipated this would improve the service.
21. Mrs X disputes that there were only four missed collections. She says significantly more were missed and has asked the Ombudsman to investigate her concerns. In response to our enquiries 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. The Council was only able to get limited crews out each day, and they are not able to complete the full rounds leading to excessive dropped work. It has only recently started to investigate repeated missed collections during the industrial action.
22. There are two main ways the Council 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.
23. 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.
24. The Council says there has been a new driver on the round collecting from Mrs X’s street for the last few months. It expects this to lead to improvements and fewer missed collections.

Analysis

25. 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. These failings in the service amount to fault.
26. 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 Miss 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’ and then returned her bin.
27. Having identified fault, I must consider whether this has caused Mrs X a significant injustice. The missed collections began before months before any industrial action and continued through the strikes. Some of the missed collections may be due to the strike action and may have affected the whole street, but it is likely that on other occasions only Mrs X was affected.
28. The Council’s records of missed collection are inconsistent. The stage two complaint response refers to four reported missed collections and includes one not listed in the log of nine missed collections provided to us. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records are a reliable reflection of the extent of the missed collections.
29. Mrs X has had find ways to manage the uncollected her waste left at her property and has faced difficulties in retrieving her bin when it is not returned. She has experienced frustration and disappointment that despite her complaints and reporting of problems the missed collections continued. Mrs X has also been put to time and trouble in pursuing this matter.

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Action

30. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs X and pay her £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste collections has caused.
31. 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.
32. 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.

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Decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman