The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mr X complained that although he should receive an assisted collection service the Council has routinely failed to collect his household waste and recycling. The repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complained that although he should receive an assisted collection service the Council has routinely failed to collect his household waste and recycling for the last seven years. Mr X complains the Council has missed consecutive household waste collections leading to an accumulation of waste and has not emptied his recycling bin in all the time he has had it.
Mr X complains that despite the repeatedly reporting the issues and making complaints the problem has continued.
What I have investigated Although Mr X complains about problems with collections for many years, I have only investigated events since December 2020.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended) We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
As part of the investigation, I have: considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X; made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided; discussed the issues with Mr X; Mr X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.
What I found
Refuse and recycling collections Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
The Council provides an assisted collection service for people who are unable to move their bins and boxes due to a disability or age. The Council should collect the bins from the storage point and return them to the same point.
When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.
What happened here Mr X complains there have been problems with the assisted collection service he receives for a number of years. He states the collection crews regularly fail to collect his waste even though they collect his neighbours’ waste. There have been occasions where the Council has missed several consecutive household waste collections leading to an accumulation of waste which is unpleasant, dirty and smelly. Mr X also states that although the Council provided a bin for recycling, it has never collected his recycling.
According to the Council’s records, Mr X reported 10 missed household waste collections in 2021. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. The reports at the beginning of the year were all closed within a day or two of the missed collections. However the records show the missed collections later in the year took longer to resolve, and the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent.
For example, Mr X reported a missed collection on 23 September 2021, which the Council closed on 30 September 2021, the next scheduled collection. But Mr X also reported the collection due on 30 September 2021 as missed, and the Council did not close this report until 18 October 2021. If the Council had made a collection on 30 September 2021 Mr X would not have needed to report this as missed. Alternatively, if the Council had returned on 30 September 2021 to make the collection missed that day, it could have closed the report that day, rather than 18 October 2021.
In addition to reporting missed collections, Mr X also made formal complaints about the assisted collection service. In February 2021 Mr X complained his household waste had not been collected for four or five weeks. He noted the crews had collected his neighbours’ waste but left his. Mr X was unhappy the problem had continued having previously been told the problem would be resolved. He asked for the matter to be investigated thoroughly.
The Council’s response apologised for the poor service. It confirmed the service manager had spoken to the crews and instructed them to collect the household waste and recycling, and to remove any excess waste. As this did not resolve the problem the Council arranged to monitor Mr X’s collections between March and June 2021.
The records of this monitoring show that all the collections were successfully completed during this period. The monitoring ended on 16 June 2021, and on 30 June 2021 Mr X made a further complaint. He stated that although the collections were made while the crews were being monitored, since the monitoring had ended, their collections had been missed. There is no record the Council responded to Mr X’s complaint in writing, but a note in its records state an officer spoke to Mr X in late August 2021 and the service was back on track.
However, in September 2021 Mr X made a further formal complaint as his collections were again being missed. Mr X chased the Council for a response just over a month later and complained his waste had not been collected for the last three weeks. He contacted the Council again in December 2021 as he had still not received a response to his complaint and his waste was last collected five weeks ago.
The Council’s response apologised for the delay in responding. It confirmed Mr X was on the assisted collections list and that the crews had been reminded. The Council stated it would monitor Mr X’s collections for the next few weeks to ensure they were being emptied correctly.
Mr X contacted the Council again in January and February 2022 as there were further missed collections and he has asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaints. In response to my enquiries the Council states it runs an assisted collection report at the start of each month with an updated list of all assisted collections. It then manually adds properties to each depot’s hard drive so they can print off and add this to crew information packs. Assisted collection properties also appear on the crew’s mobile technology. It has confirmed that Mr X has assisted collection status.
The Council states that over the last year there have been widespread shortages throughout Waste Services. It acknowledges that some collection rounds have been impacted by these shortages. Staff shortages have meant that crew membership has been inconsistent and it states some relief crews may not have worked through the assisted collection list as thoroughly as they should.
Analysis It is clear from the Council’s records there have been repeated failings in the assisted collection service it provides to Mr X. These failings in the service amount to fault.
The Council states Mr X reported a total of ten missed collections in 2021, but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and I note Mr X’s complaints refer to consecutive missed collections which are not included in the Council’s list. I do not therefore consider the Council’s records to be a reliable indicator of the extent of the problem.
It is also concerning that the Council appears to have closed reports of missed collections when the waste had not been collected.
I recognise the Council may have had staff shortages over the last year, but this does not explain why Mr X has experienced problems with his assisted collections for several years. Further, if details of assisted collections appear on mobile technology within the collection vehicles and are added to the crew packs, this information should be available to the regular and any relief crews collecting Mr X’s waste. It is therefore unacceptable that Mr X’s household waste and recycling is missed when the rest of the street is collected.
It is also disappointing that Mr X’s waste is collected without incident while the collections are monitored, but that the service then promptly declines when monitoring ends.
I also consider there to be fault in the way the Council has responded to Mr X’s complaints. Not only have its actions been ineffective in resolving the problem long term, but there was also a significant delay in responding to Mr X’s complaint of September 2021. The Council’s complaints procedure states it will respond to complaints at stage 1 of the process within 15 working days. In this instance the Council took 12 weeks to respond, having been chased by Mr X twice. Delays of this nature are clearly not acceptable.
Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste left at his property. He has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections has caused.
The Council has also agreed to arrange to monitor Mr X’s household waste and recycling collections for eight weeks to ensure the assisted collections are carried out properly and to identify and address any reasons why collections are missed.
The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.
Final decision
The repeated failure to make regular assisted household waste and recycling collections amounts to fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman