Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a change to Miss X’s bin collection point at her property. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant our involvement and there is no worthwhile outcome of us investigating.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council changed the location where she had to leave her refuse bins for collection. This occurred because of an issue relating to access to private property.
2. Miss X said the Council’s actions inconvenienced her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, 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

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

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My assessment

6. Miss X complained the Council changed the location where she had to leave her refuse bins for collection. She said the new collection point was further away from her property which caused her inconvenience.
7. This happened following a concern about the Council accessing private property to carry out the collection. After this was raised, the Council visited the location and decided to change the refuse bin collection point for Miss X.
8. On the evidence I have seen the Council told Miss X about this during its visit.
9. While I acknowledge Miss X’s concern with the new collection point, the Council’s actions appear to be appropriate and considerate of the needs of all residents. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant our involvement. Additionally, there is no worthwhile outcome to us investigating as we cannot tell the Council where it should collect the bins from. For these reasons, we will not investigate this complaint.
10. Additionally, as we will not investigate the substantive matters of the complaint, we will not investigate the Council’s handling of the complaint because it is not proportionate to do so.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to warrant our involvement and there is no worthwhile outcome of us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman