The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council not agreeing to replace her broken bin free of charge and how it investigated the matter. There is not enough significant personal injustice caused to her by the matters complained of to warrant us investigating.
The complaint
Ms X subscribes to the Council’s chargeable garden waste collection scheme. She complains: the Council’s bin crew broke the lid off her garden waste bin during a collection; the Council’s officers and bin contractor did not properly investigate the matter.
Ms X says the matter has increased her anxiety and the Council is requiring her to pay the cost of a replacement bin. She wants the Council to replace the bin free of charge.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate 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 continue 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), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information from Ms X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
In response to Ms X’s complaint about the bin, officers concluded the damage was due to wear and tear, and the age and deterioration of the bin, so was not caused by the bin emptying procedure. Officers did not accept the Council’s contractor was responsible for the damaged bin and advised Ms X she would need to pay for a replacement.
Even if there has been fault in the Council’s investigation and complaint processes leading to its decision that the replacement bin is chargeable, we will not investigate here. The price of a new bin is about £32 or £38, depending on the size chosen. This amount is an insufficient significant personal injustice to Ms X to warrant us investigating. We also recognise Ms X has been caused anxiety by the matter and missed some of the garden waste collections while in dispute with the Council. But these impacts, combined with the cost of a new bin, do not amount to a sufficient significant personal injustice to her which warrants us investigating.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient significant personal injustice caused to her by the matters complained of to justify us investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman