Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to consider his complaint when it missed collection on of his father’s bins. This is because there is not enough injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains on behalf of his father, Mr Y, about the Council’s refusal to consider his complaint about a missed assisted bin collection. Mr X believes the Council should exercise discretion to accept his complaint because of Mr Y’s vulnerability and the disproportionate impact of a missed bin collection.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. People may complaint to us about injustice caused by:

• ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ by a public organization we could investigate; or
• The actions of an organization in connection with privately arranged adult social care.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(1) or section 34C(1)(a))

3. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8))
4. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. The Council told Mr X it would not consider his report of a single missed bin collection as a complaint. It explained there was a separate process to report missed collections, regardless of whether these are assisted or not. In this case, Mr X reported only one of the two bins Mr Y has was collected.
7. The law means we can choose only to investigate a complaint where the person has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the body complained about. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
8. When it comes to waste collections, mistakes can happen, and from time-to-time most people will have a missed collection. We would not normally investigate complaints where there have only been a couple of missed collections or one-off problems. So, we will not investigate Mr X’s complaint, because although we understand it is frustrating, the injustice caused is not significant enough to justify our continued involvement in the case.
9. We will also not criticise the Council’s decision not to consider a single missed bin collection under its complaint procedure. The Council’s action to signpost Mr X to report this through its dedicated process was proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman