Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed glass collections because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, complains the Council did not collect her recycling (glass) for almost a year. Ms X wants the Council to collect the glass.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence and an update about recent collections. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. The Council’s website explains people must report missed waste collections by 4pm on the next working day. The webpage explains how to make a report.
5. Ms X called the Council in September to say her glass had not been collected since February 2023. The Council said it could not investigate her complaint because it had not received any reports of missed collections. It explained that if a missed collection is not reported correctly then the crew will not collect it until the next scheduled collection date.
6. Ms X then reported two missed collections. The Council raised this with the crew. The crew reported that Ms X did not present any waste in early December but the glass was collected in January.
7. The Council told me it has not received any further reports from Ms X since then.
8. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. I do not know what happened to the collections between February and September but the Council could not take any action because it was unaware of the problem. This is because Ms X did not correctly report the missed collections. Once the Council became aware of the problem it acted appropriately by raising the issue with the crew. Since then Ms X’s glass has been collected and the Council has not received any further reports. If there are any more missed collections Ms X can log a report with the Council.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman