Hull Council criticised for wrongly charging care homes for waste disposal

Kingston upon Hull City Council wrongly charged care homes for disposing of waste.

Kingston upon Hull City Council wrongly charged care homes for disposing of waste, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Anne Seex. In her report, issued today (14 July 2011) she says: “The Council has no lawful power to charge care homes for disposing of non-clinical waste. It must follow that it has no lawful power to retain the money it collected from the home managed by [the complainant] and others. There is no suggestion that the Council acted in bad faith but it has acted with maladministration in making the charges and keeping the money up to April 2008.”

Mr N complained that for many years the Council wrongly charged care homes for disposing of waste. The Council changed its policy in April 2008 after it received a letter from the [then] Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but refused to refund charges it had made before then. Mr N says that, in one year, the home he manages was wrongly charged almost £2,000.

The Ombudsman found that the regulations did not allow councils to charge care homes for disposing of waste (although there can be a charge for collecting waste) and that this was clear from a Government Circular issued in 1992.

She concluded that the Council should refund the charges it had made to Mr N and to other care homes before April 2008 as it had no lawful power to make them.

The real names of people are not used in the report for legal reasons.

Report ref no 09 002 665

Article date: 14 July 2011

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