Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled a change in bin collections. There is not significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council changed his bin collections without proper assessments and failed to properly consider reasonable alternatives. Mr X says this has caused stress, disruption to daily routines and a decline in living conditions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))
3. 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

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

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My assessment

6. 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 a serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
7. Mr X says the Council has changed his fortnightly wheeled bin collection to a bi-weekly bag collection. He says this means he must keep waste in his home for several days which causes hygiene and odour issues, as well as a negative impact on air quality affecting medical conditions. The Council has advised Mr X he could purchase his own, private wheeled bin to store the refuse bags in between collections. A wheeled bin can be purchased for a relatively small amount and would enable Mr X to store the waste bags in between collections. I recognise the circumstances of Mr X’s complaint have affected him, but this is not significant enough to warrant us investigating.
8. Mr X further complains about the Council’s complaint-handling. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman