The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint about missed refuse collections resulting from strike action by the Council’s refuse collection crews. This is because the complaint is about an issue which affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area and the law does not allow us to investigate such matters.
The complaint
The complainant, Mrs X, complains the Council has failed to collect her household waste due to strike action by its collection crews. She believes the Council should refund a proportion of her council tax payments as these contribute towards the collections which have not taken place.
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 effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully.
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
From time to time councils may be affected by industrial strike action by its employees or contractors. It is not for us to comment on the rights and wrongs of such action and we cannot say councils must give in to the demands of those who choose to strike.
The strike in this case affects all or most of the residents in the Council’s area and Mrs X is affected by it in the same way as any other resident. She has had to dispose of her rubbish herself and is frustrated that she has paid for collections as part of her council tax which have not taken place.
Because the issue affects all or most of the residents in the area the exclusion set out at Paragraph 3 applies; we cannot therefore investigate this complaint.
While I appreciate Mrs X is frustrated there is no entitlement to a refund of council tax simply because a resident does not use a service or where the council, for some reason, does not provide it.
Final decision
We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it is about an issue which affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman