The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed bin collections. We could not add to the Council’s response and it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has failed to collect his bins in line with its collection schedule. It also delayed responding to his complaint. He wants the Council to collect his bins in line with the schedule.
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: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code. This states we will not normally investigate unless the person has suffered serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the service provider.
My assessment
Ms X complained to the Council in October 2023 about missed bin collections. The Council did not respond to his complaint.
Mr X complained again in August 2024. In its complaint responses, the Council apologised to Mr X for the issues he had experienced. It explained that crews had experienced difficulties accessing the road and there were also health and safety concerns for the crew due to a busy junction at one end. It said it had decided to introduce a collection point to improve collections. It said affected properties would shortly receive a letter explaining this.
We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has acknowledged his concerns and apologised for the missed collections he had experienced. It has explained why the missed collections have been occurring and what the Council is now doing to address the problem. This is an appropriate response to his concerns and it is unlikely an investigation would achieve anything more.
Mr X also complains the Council did not respond to his initial complaint about the matter in October 2023. We will not investigate this as it is not a good use of our limited resources to investigate complaint handling when we are not investigating the substantive matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman