Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s waste collection service. It is reasonable to expect the complainant to have contacted us sooner about events in 2023/24, the mixing of different waste types does not cause the complainant a significant personal injustice, and we cannot investigate the disruption caused by industrial strike action as this affects all or most people in the Council’s area.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains that during the 2023/24 financial year waste collections were missed on seven occasions, so he did not receive the service he is paying for. He also says residents are wasting their time by separating household and recycling waste, when they are both tipped into the same refuse lorry compartment.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

4. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
5. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
6. We also 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Mr X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. The 12-month time restriction detailed in paragraph 5 above appears to apply to Mr X’s complaint. This is because he refers to missed collections during the 2023/24 financial year, yet he did not contact the Ombudsman until August 2025. I see no good reasons to exercise discretion to investigate these late events now.
9. In addition, whilst I appreciate Mr X and other residents might feel frustrated by the different waste streams being mixed, I am not persuaded this causes a significant enough injustice to warrant the Ombudsman pursuing the matter further.
10. Finally, the Ombudsman cannot investigate any parts of the complaint about disruptions to collections since the start of industrial strike action in early-2025, as that is a matter affecting all or most people in the Council’s area.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• it is reasonable to expect him to have contacted us sooner about some parts of the complaint;
• the mixing of different waste streams does not cause a significant personal injustice; and,
• we cannot investigate matters which affect all or most people in the Council’s area, like the disruption caused by ongoing strike action.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman