The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed waste collections and poor complaint handling. The Council has implemented measures to ensure the green waste collections are made according to schedule. Further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome. Also, we do not consider that Mrs X suffered a significant personal injustice because of the complaint procedure alone to warrant an investigation on this point.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect her garden waste. It also gave wrong information when she reported the missed collections and failed to follow the complaints process.
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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, 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 Mrs X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X reported several missed green waste collections to the Council. She says she was passed to different departments who all told her it would not happen again but it did.
In response to our enquiries the Council confirmed several green waste collections for Mrs X’s road were not made on the scheduled dates. It says this was because of resource issues and the garden waste was collected within a few days.
The Council confirms it has recruited more staff and changed the collection route to make the round achievable and efficient. It says it has not received any missed collection reports since its response to Mrs X’s complaint which was two months ago.
I understand Mrs X wants us to ensure the Council does not ‘get away’ with poor service. However, the Council has apologised for the missed collections and carried out measures to prevent further collection issues. We consider that further investigation on this matter will not lead to a different outcome.
Mrs X also complains the Council failed to follow the complaints procedure. We expect Councils to follow their published complaints process. We also acknowledge that Mrs X found this frustrating. However we do not consider this point alone caused a significant personal injustice which warrants an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because: The Council has implemented measures to ensure green waste collections are made according to schedule. We consider further investigation on this point is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.
We acknowledge Mrs X found the process of raising her complaints with the Council frustrating. However we do not consider this injustice is so severe as to warrant an investigation on this point.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman