The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council charging for a replacement bin. This is because an investigation would not be a good use of our limited resources or achieve a meaningful outcome.
The complaint
Mr C complains the Council is charging him for a new bin after his bin was damaged on the day of collection. Mr C would like the Council to provide a new 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 an investigation if we decide: any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr C and information on the Council’s website about new and replacement bins.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate this complaint.
The Council says it has no record or evidence of Mr C’s bin being damaged during collection. Mr C says it is likely the bin was damaged during collection and the Council is wrong to suggest it may have been damaged before or after collection.
It is highly unlikely an investigation would allow us to make sound findings about the cause of the damage to Mr C’s bin. Also, councils are allowed to charge for replacement bins and the £33.50 fee is relatively modest. So, the issue Mr C complains about does not justify public money being spent on an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr C’s complaint because an investigation would not be a good use of our limited resources or achieve a meaningful outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman