Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision that Mr X’s property was suitable for a new wheeled bin collection. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s decision that his property was suitable for a new wheeled bin collection.
2. Mr X said the wheeled bins cause an obstruction. Mr X said this has caused him distress.
3. Mr X wants the Council to remove the wheeled bins from his property.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly, and councils can decide the types of bins or boxes people must use.
8. The Council was entitled to make changes to how it collected waste and the containers it provided to do so. As part of implementing the changes the Council said it would write to property owners with an outcome of their assessment and whether they would continue to receive a sack collection or move to a wheeled bin service.
9. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether a person disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
10. The Council considered Mr X’s challenge to its decision at both stage one and stage two. In doing so, it considered information from Mr X and its wheeled bin criteria. As the Council followed suitable procedures when making its decision, there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify us investigating.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman