Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the noise created by Council’s waste recycling collection. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s recycling service collecting waste before 7am on some occasions. He says the noise is a nuisance and wakes residents before a reasonable time.

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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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says he has been woken before 7am on some occasions by the Council’s recycling collection and the noise from containers of bottles and cans is excessive and unreasonable for such an early time. He complained to the Council. The Council apologised and told him that it would try to prevent collections being made too early. However, on some occasions the schedule has to be changed which requires an earlier service.
6. There is no regulation about what time waste collections should take place. Many councils require bins to be placed on the pavement for collection from 5 or 6am onwards. This is a requirement which the waste authority may specify under the Environmental protection Act 1990. When there are changes to a normal scheduled collection, such as after bank holidays, it is inevitable that earlier collections may take place. Due to the short period of disturbance caused by a waste collection it is unlikely that this could be considered to be statutory nuisance.

The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint about the noise created by Council’s waste recycling collection. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman