The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council failed to inform the complainant of a change to the time of her household waste collection. This is because the matter did not cause a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
The complaint
The complaint, who I will call Mrs X, complains that the Council changed the time of her waste collection, bringing it forward by 30 minutes. Mrs X says the Council did not properly inform her about this, so she had not put out her bins and so her collection was missed.
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 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 the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council brought forward the collection times of household waste in some areas to ensure all collections could be made. It published this information on its website and informed residents who were signed up to receive email updates from the Council.
Mrs X wasn’t signed up to receive emails and doesn’t check the Council website frequently. This meant she did not put her bins out until after the refuse collectors had been, resulting in her waste not being collected for a week. Mrs X says the Council should have informed her by adding a notice to her bins.
I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. Whilst I acknowledge that it may have been an inconvenience for her household waste not to have been collected, I do not consider this to have caused her a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation. We will not usually investigate complaints about one or two missed collections.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs x’s complaint because she has not suffered a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman