Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of its garden waste and general refuse collection services. There is insufficient evidence of fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council prohibits residents from putting garden waste in their general refuse bin, yet he has observed its refuse collectors putting garden waste (being collected via the subscription service) in the same refuse vehicle as the general waste. He therefore believes the Council is breaching the terms of the subscription service by mixing the waste, and thinks its actions are unfair outrageous, and illegal.
2. Mr X thinks the Council should either provide guarantees that garden waste collected through its subscription service will be processed separately, or allow residents to put garden waste in their general refuse bin.
3. Mr X also raises concerns about the Council’s handling of his subsequent complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

5. As a publicly funded body we must be careful how we use our resources. We conduct proportionate assessments of cases; closing them when we consider we have enough evidence to make a sound decision. This means we do not try to answer every single question a complainant may have about what the organisation did.
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. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. I appreciate Mr X thinks it is unfair the Council prohibits residents from putting garden waste in their general waste bin, yet it cannot guarantee the two waste streams will not be mixed when garden waste is collected via its subscription service.
9. But the Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not overrule Council decisions on the policies it adopts, or tell it how it should operate its services. As such, we cannot achieve the outcome the complainant is seeking, as we cannot direct the Council to change it collection policies.
10. The Council has also explained that by subscribing to the garden waste collection service, a resident is paying to have their garden waste collected; no guarantee is ever given that the garden waste will remain separate and be sent for composting, although most of the time it will be. It says there may be occasions, for operational reasons, that the waste cannot be collected separately. In my view, there is insufficient evidence that the Council acted with fault when the two waste streams were mixed during the garden waste collection service.
11. As we are not investigating the substantive matter being complained about, it would not be a good use of our resources to pursue Mr X’s associated concerns about the Council’s complaint process in isolation.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome he is seeking.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman