Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about a missed refuse collection. This is because Mr B has not suffered a significant injustice which would justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains his refuse bin was not collected on a day when the Council collected his neighbours’ bins. Mr B says this seems to have been a deliberate and targeted attack on him. Mr B says the Council’s initial response was false and the Council has not explained why his bin was not collected. Mr B would like the Council to take a range of actions including issuing him with a council tax refund for the month the missed collection took place.

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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.

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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 do not normally investigate complaints about one or two missed refuse collections. We do not expect councils to pay a financial remedy for a single missed collection or a limited number of missed collections. And, we do not expect councils to give council tax refunds for missed collections.
7. The Council has apologised to Mr B for this missed collection and said it was a genuine oversight by the collection crew.
8. I find Mr B has not suffered a serious or significant injustice which would justify public money being spent on an investigation or the pursuit of a financial remedy by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because he has not suffered a significant injustice which would justify an investigation or the pursuit of a financial remedy.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman