Birmingham City Council (26 008 958)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 06 Jul 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about bin collections. The matter is a result of industrial action by the Council’s refuse collection staff and so is a matter that affects all or most people in the area.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council repeatedly missed his bin collections over the past year, causing a hazard.
- Mr X also says the Council refused to respond to his complaint about this issue.
- Mr X wants the Council to explain what went wrong and to arrange for his bin to be collected as soon as possible.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something we decide affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
- The courts have said we can decide not to investigate a complaint about any action by an organisation concerning a matter which the law says we cannot investigate. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council’s refuse collection staff began industrial strike action, resulting in missed collections for a large proportion of the Council’s residents and a backlog of reports which the Council is trying to clear.
- I accept Mr X is unhappy the Council has not provided reliable bin collections. However, he is affected by these issues in the same or a similar way as all or most of the people in the Council’s area. Therefore, the law prevents us from investigating his complaint.
- We will also not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint handling. The courts said we can decide not to investigate complaints about complaint procedures when we cannot investigate the substantive matter.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter affects all or most people in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman