Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s garden waste collection fees. There is not enough evidence of fault to or significant injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council introduced a paid garden waste collection service without carrying out an Equality Impact Assessment and therefore failed to properly consider the impact on low-income residents. He says the annual charge is unaffordable and the Council does not offer concessions or flexible payment options, and that it refused his request for a one-off collection.
2. Mr X says he has been without garden waste collection for over a year, which has caused inconvenience. He wants the Council to acknowledge fault, review the scheme, provide him a personal remedy and improve its approach to equality in future decisions.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
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, or
• 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))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

7. The Council is entitled to decide whether to introduce a chargeable garden waste scheme and at what level to set the charge. It determines the cost, whether to offer concessions, and whether to provide instalment plans. The Council has also stated that, as part of its review, it will consider concessions and alternative payment methods.
8. Mr X chose not to subscribe to the scheme, and as a result he did not receive garden waste collection, which caused inconvenience. This situation did not arise from any fault by the Council. The Council’s refusal to provide a one-off collection is consistent with its policy. Because of this, we will not investigate this part of Mr X’s complaint further.
9. The Council has acknowledged it cannot evidence completing an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) when it introduced the scheme and has agreed to carry out a new assessment and review the service. Although we would normally consider this aspect of the complaint out of time, as the scheme was introduced six years ago, we consider the Council’s proposed actions to be a suitable remedy for this part of Mr X’s complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice to justify our involvement.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman