The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling over many months despite routinely collecting his neighbours’ recycling. The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling as scheduled is fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his recycling over many months despite routinely collecting his neighbours’ recycling.
Mr X also complains that when his recycling is collected, the Council does not return his bin to the collection point.
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) 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.
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 the Council has routinely failed to collect his recycling. He states he had no recycling collections at all from February 2022 until August 2022 when the Council began making collections. Mr X complains that when the crews now collect his recycling they do not return his bin to his property and he has to search for it in the street.
According to the Council’s records, Mr X reported four consecutive missed collections in March and April 2022. The reports all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections. However, the dates these reports were closed are inconsistent and raise questions about the accuracy of the records.
Mr X reported a missed collection on 9 March 2022, which the Council closed on 23 March 2022. However Mr X also reported the collection scheduled for 22 March 2022 as missed, and the Council closed this report on 7 April 2022. If the Council had returned to make the missed collection on 23 March 2022, it could have closed both reports that day. Similarly, Mr X reported a missed collection on 5 April 2022, which the Council closed on 19 April 2022. Again, if the Council had returned to make a collection on 7 April, as its records suggest, it could also have closed this report that day.
As well as reporting missed collections, Mr X also made a formal complaint to the Council. In March 2022 he complained the Council had missed his recycling while collecting from neighbouring houses on his street. He questioned why his house was being discriminated against and asked what he should do with the accumulated waste.
The Council responded at the end of the month and apologised for the two missed collections. It explained there were widespread staff shortages throughout the waste service which had impacted some collection rounds. The Council stated the depots were working in collaboration and where there were staff shortages teams from other depots were assisting to make collections.
Mr X was not satisfied by the Council’s response and asserted the Council had not read his complaint properly. He disputed the missed collections were due to staff shortages as his neighbours’ recycling was still being collected. As of 31 March 2022 Mr X’s recycling had still not been collected and he believed this was due to discrimination. He asked for his complaint to be reviewed.
Having reviewed Mr X’s complaint the Council responded in May 2022 and stated that nobody’s collection was missed because of the colour of their skin. The Council said it was experiencing widespread issues with missed collections across the city. Where the whole street was missed the Council asked residents to leave the bins out as catch up crews were working to clear the backlog. The Council noted Mr X had not reported a missed collection since 20 April 2022 and hoped that the service had improved. It also confirmed the service manager was aware of the complaint and would speak to the crew to improve matters going forward.
As the missed collections continued, in June 2022 Mr X asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. He states he stopped reporting missed collections in April 2022 as apart from giving him a reference number the Council did not take any action to improve the service. His recycling had still not been collected since February 2022 and he was unhappy the Council had closed the case without checking the service had improved.
In response to my enquiries the Council states the original recycling crew was disbanded towards the end of April 2022 due to performance issues. It states the new recycling crew appear to be collecting the recycling as scheduled as it has not received any further reports of missed collection since 20 April 2022. It asserts this also suggests Mr X’s bin is being returned properly.
Mr X has responded to the draft decision as he is concerned that while recycling collections have now resumed, his bin is not routinely returned to his property when empty. He state he has made a further complaint to the Council about this issue.
Analysis It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s recycling. These failings in the service amount to fault.
The Council accepts it has missed four consecutive collections but I consider it likely the Council missed significantly more collections. There are inconsistencies in the Council’s records, and it is concerning that the Council appears to have closed the reports of missed collections when it had not collected the recycling.
As Mr X stopped reporting missed collections it is not possible to confirm the precise number of missed collections or exactly when regular collections resumed. I note Mr X’s complaint to the Ombudsman in June 2022 states his recycling had still not been collected since February 2022. And he confirmed in August 2022 the collections had started again.
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 recycling left at his property and has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.
While I recognise the missed collections are frustrating and inconvenient for Mr X I am also mindful that he has not reported a missed collection for several months. In the absence of further reports or complaints, the Council was unlikely to be aware this is an ongoing issue. There is no record Mr X responded to or challenged the Council’s letter in May 2022 which suggested the last missed collection was 20 April 2022. I consider the Council was entitled to assume the service manager’s intervention had resolved the problem and the service had improved.
Clearly should Mr X report further problems with the recycling collections or his bins not being returned correctly, I would expect the Council to take action to address the issue.
Agreed action
The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £100 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the failure to make regular recycling collections has caused.
The Council should take this action within one month of the final decision on this complaint.
Final decision
The Council’s repeated failure to collect Mr X’s recycling as scheduled is fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman