Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council temporarily suspending its garden waste collection service. The Council has already taken action which is a satisfactory way to address the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about missed bin collections when the Council temporarily suspended its garden waste collection service in August 2025. She says she had nowhere to store the waste and wants the Council to deliver the service she paid for.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(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 Mrs X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council decided to temporarily suspend its garden waste collection service across its area, due to staff shortage. It says this was a policy adopted to allow it to concentrate resources on general and recycling waste collections, which it has a statutory obligation to provide.
5. The garden waste collection is an optional service, for which Mrs X paid an annual fee. 
6. I understand the service resumed in September 2025, and the Council has considered how to compensate subscribers for the missed collections. It decided to offer a £10 refund or a discount on the service renewal for 2026/27. We consider this to be a proportionate and reasonable way to address the matter, so further investigation by the Ombudsman is not warranted.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is unlikely to achieve anything more than the offer already proposed by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman