Westmorland and Furness Council (25 027 300)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 Feb 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about a missed garden waste collection. This is because Mr B has not suffered a serious or significant injustice which would justify public money being spent on an investigation or the pursuit of a financial remedy.
The complaint
- Mr B complains the Council cancelled a scheduled collection of his garden waste during the Christmas and new year period. Mr B says this meant he had to make his own arrangements to dispose of his garden waste. Mr B says he pays an annual fee of £51 for 25 collections and he has not received the service he paid for. Mr B would like the Council to pay him a refund and compensation for his inconvenience and expense at a busy and expensive time of year.
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 an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr B.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures.
- We have to use public money carefully and we generally do not investigate complaints about one or two missed waste collections. We also do not expect councils to pay a financial remedy for a single missed collection.
- I find Mr B has not suffered a serious or significant injustice which would justify an investigation or the pursuit of a financial remedy by the Ombudsman.
- So, we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because he has not suffered a serious or significant injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman