Cornwall Council (25 012 120)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Jan 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council missing Mr X’s waste collection and the way it dealt with his complaint. We do not consider Mr X has suffered a significant personal injustice which justifies our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council missed his waste collection and then falsely claimed it had video evidence showing his waste was not put out for collection.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X, including the Council’ responses.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In its final response to Mr X the Council confirmed it missed his waste collection and this was due to an error made by the refuse crew.
- It also confirmed the CCTV in the refuse truck was not working on the day of the missed collection. Unfortunately the wrong information was initially passed to Mr X. It has apologised for this and the missed collection.
- The Council has confirmed further details on missed collection reporting has been advised by colleagues and the CCTV equipment in the truck has now been repaired.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because while I understand Mr X found the missed collection and the complaint process stressful; the Council apologised and the waste was collected, albeit after two weeks. Therefore I do not consider he has suffered such significant personal injustice as to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman