The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about bin collections. The injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement and the use of public money. We will not investigate other issues which have not been put before the Council.
The complaint
Ms X complains: the Council has failed to make sure their bin contractor regularly collected all her waste; the Council has failed to make sure the bin staff replaced her bins in an orderly way at the edge of her property; Council officers have ignored her complaints; the bin staff have harassed her; the bin staff have damaged plants in her garden.
Ms X says the matter has caused her huge stress. She says the Council’s contractors leave her bins blocking the path to her front door, or blocking pavements, inconveniencing wheelchair users or people with buggies. Ms X says she cannot take uncollected rubbish away as the tip is too far away and she does not have a car. She wants the Council to provide a reliable bin collection service, and for the bin crews to replace emptied bins neatly at the edge of her property.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Ms X, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X lives in a location with limited access for a bin lorry. She says bin staff use a wheelbarrow to gather rubbish bags to take back to the lorry. She has contacted the Council several times since autumn 2021 when bin staff have not collected all her waste, and also when they have left her bins across her path or on the pavement.
We recognise bin crews sometimes not collecting all her waste, and not leaving bins exactly where she wants them to be left causes Ms X some frustration, annoyance and inconvenience. But the injustice Ms X claims from these matters is not significant enough to justify the use of public money to investigate this complaint.
Ms X says the Council has ignored her complaints. Ms X did not get the outcomes she wanted from the Council’s complaint process, but the officers’ replies show they responded to her concerns.
In her complaint to us, Ms X alleges the bin staff have harassed her. This appears to be an allegation based on the general bin service they have provided to her, rather than any incidents of harassment by specific staff members. Ms X also says in her complaint to us that bin staff have damaged her garden plants.
There is no reference to these issues in Ms X’s complaint to the Council. We cannot investigate a matter which has not been raised with a council first. If Ms X wishes to pursue them, she should make these complaints to the Council. The complaint about damage to Ms X’s plants is also a claim of property damage, which would be a matter for consideration by the Council’s or bin contractor’s insurers.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because: the injustice caused to her is not sufficient to warrant an investigation; she has not complained to the Council about her allegation of harassment or of damage to her plants by bin staff, so we cannot consider those premature matters.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman