Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed bin collections. This is because the Council has already taken suitable action in response to Mr X’s complaint and there is nothing further we would likely add or recommend.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains there were multiple missed bin collections for more than a year. Mr X says the council promised a resolution but the bins were still not all emptied. He says he has had no apology and the missed bin collections have caused frustration, stress and inconvenience to him and residents from neighbouring properties who also use the shared bins.

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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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended.

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X has reported many missed bin collections for more than a year. He had discussions with Council officers during that period then escalated his complaint through the Council’s corporate complaints procedure.
6. The Council investigated the issue and during that investigation Mr X filmed the bin collection where one of the bins was missed after a council officer said they had been collected. This helped the Council in finding out the truck that was visiting the property was not suitable to collect large bins; the reason some bins were not emptied.
7. In its complaint response the Council upheld Mr X’s complaint. The Council conducted a further detailed investigation and has accepted it is at fault and explained the reasoning to Mr X for the missed collections.
8. Mr X suffered some inconvenience by the missed collections. But any injustice he claims is not serious or significant enough to justify us investigating.
9. The Council apologised and put in place a comprehensive action plan and collection monitoring and audits to prevent recurrence of the missed collections. The Council is offering regular meetings with Mr X and has given him a named officer to contact about the missed collections. These are actions the Ombudsman would expect the Council to take.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because the Council has already taken suitable action to resolve the matter and there is nothing further we would add or recommend were we to also investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman