The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed waste collections, failing to provide black sacks, and failing to respond to concerns. Although it was frustrating, there is not enough injustice to justify an Ombudsman investigation.
The complaint
Ms B says the Council failed to collect her glass for six months or provide refuse sacks for 18 months. Ms B says the Council failed to respond to her contacts. This caused Ms B time, trouble, frustration and the cost of buying sacks. Ms B wants a refund and compensation.
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 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)) We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We do not investigate all complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
When it comes to waste collections, mistakes can happen, and from time-to-time most people will have a missed collection. We would not normally investigate complaints where there have only been a couple of missed collections or one-off problems. So, we will not investigate Ms B’s complaint, because although we understand it is frustrating, the injustice caused is not significant enough to justify our continued involvement in the case.
The Council has acknowledged fault, apologised to Ms B and taken action to put things right. We are satisfied with these actions, and it is unlikely we would add anything significantly different.
Ms B is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with her complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because there is not enough injustice to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman