Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s waste collection. This is because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains says the Council has not emptied his bins twice. He says he had to pay a third party to remove the waste and this caused him inconvenience.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We 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. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation,

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. Mr X said the Council’s operatives wrongly marked his recycling waste as contaminated and missed another collection.
5. The Council replied it had checked CCTV and could not identify the reason his bin was marked as contaminated. It said it had no record he had reported other missed collections. It did not uphold his complaint.
6. Mr X’s claimed personal injustice is not significant enough to justify an investigation. And it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s previous investigation.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant investigation, and it is unlikely we could add to the Council’s previous investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman