Manchester City Council (25 024 705)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council missing several bin collections. This is because any injustice is not significant enough to warrant further investigation, and in any event, further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council has missed several bin collections. He said despite reporting this to the Council, the issue continues. Mr X said because of this he is unable to dispose of his waste which is attracting rats outside his property. Mr X wants the Council to ensure his bins are collected regularly.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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:
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council accepted there were missed collections, apologised, and explained Mr X’s property is on a boundary between two collection rounds. It arranged return collections and then put monitoring in place for eight weeks, with the option to extend this if the problem continued.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. The injustice claimed is not significant enough to warrant further investigation. In any event, the Council’s response is proportionate, and it is unlikely further investigation would lead to a different outcome.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to warrant further investigation, and in any event, further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman