The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about damage caused to his bin and the Council mistakenly marking his repair as complete when it was not because the Council apologised and repaired the bin. An investigation is unlikely to achieve anything else. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delay in completing the repair or issues regarding the Council’s complaints handling because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained the Council: damaged his bin during a collection and mistakenly closed his repair request without actioning the repair; delayed repairing his bin; and failed to address his concerns via its complaints process.
Mr X said the matter caused him time and trouble and frustration.
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. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Damaged his bin during a collection and mistakenly closed his repair request without actioning the repair The Council agreed to repair Mr X’s bin. In its correspondence with Mr X the Council explained it mistakenly closed the repair as “complete” on its systems. It apologised for the error.
The Council’s apology for the error is sufficient, and an investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve anything further, so we will not investigate this complaint.
Delayed repairing his bin Mr X said his bin was damaged in April 2026. The Council repaired the bin in June 2026. The claimed injustice for this short period is not significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Failed to address his concerns via its complaints process We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about the Council’s complaint handling. Because we are not investigating the substantive matter, any claimed injustice about the Council’s complaints handling is not significant enough to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman