Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council emptying a bin he had not put out for collection. This is because Mr B has not suffered a serious or significant injustice which would justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains a Council refuse collector wrongly emptied one of his bins which he had clearly not put out for collection. Mr B says he used the bin to keep refuse bags which now need to be replaced. Mr B says the Council has not taken responsibility and he would like the Council to reimburse him for the replacement refuse bags and to make sure its refuse collectors learn from this incident.

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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 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 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))

3. 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.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. We have limited resources and must focus our investigations on complaints where the alleged fault has caused a person to suffer a significant injustice.
7. Mr B has not suffered serious loss, harm or distress because of this incident which would justify public money being spent on an investigation or the pursuit of a remedy by the Ombudsman.
8. So, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because he has not suffered a serious or significant injustice which would justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman