Birmingham City Council (25 017 018)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 29 Jan 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about refuse and recycling collections and street cleanliness. This is because the issue stems from industrial strike action by the Council’s refuse collection crews and is a matter which affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council has failed to provide reliable refuse and recycling collections and to maintain acceptable standards of cleanliness in streets and public areas.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something we decide affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council’s refuse collection crews began industrial strike action. This resulted in missed collections for a large proportion of the Council’s residents and a backlog of reports which the Council is trying to clear. The industrial action also affected street cleaning and the cleaning of public areas.
- While I appreciate Mr X is unhappy the Council has not provided reliable refuse and recycling collections, he is affected by these issues in the same or a similar way as ‘all or most’ of the residents in the Council’s area. The exclusion set out at Paragraph 3 therefore applies.
- Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the subject of the complaint. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is about an issue which affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman