Summary: Ms F complains about repeated problems with her assisted waste collection service. There was fault which has caused Ms F frustration and difficulties. The Council has agreed to make a payment to her and take actions to improve its service.

The complaint

1. Ms F complains about repeated problems with her assisted waste collection service over a number of years, causing her frustration, distress and time and trouble.
2. Ms F says there have been missed collections, her bins have not been returned or not completely emptied, and the lid is left open so the bin fills with water, which she struggles to empty. She complained in November 2020 but says the problems continue.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I spoke to Ms F about her complaint and considered the Council’s response to my enquiries.
6. Ms F and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Household waste and recycling collections

7. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to collect household waste and recycling from properties in their area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use. After the crews collect the refuse, they should put the bins back, either to their original location, or to an allocated collection point.

Assisted collections

8. The Council provides an assisted collection service to residents with disabilities or mobility problems who find it hard to place their bins out for collection. The contractor collects the bins from wherever they are placed and returns them to the same location once emptied.

Reporting missed collections

9. Residents should report missed collections within two working days. The crew should return the next day if the bin had been left out.

The Council’s complaints procedure

10. The Council’s complaints procedure states that at stage one it will respond within 10 days. If the complaint is escalated to stage two it will complete its investigation within 15 working days.

What happened

11. Ms F has mobility issues and has an assisted waste collection provided by the Council. She says that, as far back as 2013, there have been problems with the collections. She has complained about it to the Council and us in the past.
12. In November 2020 Ms F told the Council her recycling bin had not been properly emptied and that there had been many missed collections previously.
13. She complained on 1 December 2020 that the bin had still not been emptied. The Council responded that it had reminded the crew to take all bins to the vehicle, rather than removing bags from them.
14. Ms F again reported missed collections on 28 January and 9 February 2021. The Council treated this as a complaint. Its investigation found Ms F’s property was on its monitoring sheets and the crew confirmed that the bin had been emptied. The crew would sometimes remove the bag from the bin, rather than take the bin to the vehicle. The file note says the Council would monitor the collections for the next couple of weeks, but I have not seen the evidence it did so. The Council upheld Ms F’s complaint. It said crews had been reminded not to remove items from bins.
15. In May, Ms F reported missed collections again and asked for her complaint to be escalated to stage two.
16. The Council’s stage two response was sent on 1 June. It apologised and said missed collections had been due to relief crews unfamiliar with the rounds. It said that it had spoken to the crew members and reminded them of their responsibilities when collecting and returning her bins; upcoming collections would be monitored. I have not seen evidence of that monitoring.
17. Ms F reported another missed collection on 22 July and that the recycling bin had not been properly emptied on 10 August. In October and November she again reported that the bin had not been returned to the agreed location and that the lid had been left open, allowing rain in. The Council’s case record says the collection was on weekly monitoring and the crew would be reminded about closing the lid but I have not seen a written response to Ms F.
18. Ms F reported further problems in January and March 2022. In all I have seen evidence of 10 reports of problems with the collections between November 2020 and March 2022, although Ms F told me she did not report every instance.
19. A supervisor monitored Ms F’s collections from 15 March to 19 April 2022. Since complaining to the Ombudsman, Ms F has told me about more instances when the bin had not been taken to the vehicle and the lids had been left open.

My findings

20. Over at least eighteen months the Council has repeatedly failed to collect Ms F’s waste properly, return her bins to the agreed place, or has left the lids open, causing her problems when it rains. This is fault and has caused Ms F frustration and to have to spend time reporting problems to the Council.
21. Although the Council took steps to deal with the problems they have continued to recur and I have not seen evidence that monitoring took place in February and June 2021. When I issued my draft decision, I had seen that Ms F’s property was listed on the round sheets as an assisted collection, but the problems she has been having were not highlighted on this sheet and I had seen no specific written instructions to the crews. In response to my draft decision, the Council sent further monitoring and round sheets which remind the crews to empty the bins properly, return them and close the lid.
22. I find there was fault in complaint handling in 2021. When problems recurred in July and October, the Council should either have dealt with this as a new complaint or told Ms F she could take her complaint to the Ombudsman as she had already taken her complaint to stage two. But I have seen no written response to Ms F. However, I do not consider this caused injustice as the stage two reply in June 2021 had advised Ms F that the next step was the Ombudsman.
23. In response to my enquiries, the Council said it was not able to locate an up-to-date policy on assisted collections. This is fault, although it has not caused any injustice to Ms F.

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Agreed action

24. Within a month of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Pay Ms F the sum of £100 to acknowledge to acknowledge the frustration and time and trouble she has been caused.
2. Review Ms F’s assisted collection agreement to ensure instructions are clear.
3. Ensure that her property is highlighted in the collection round sheets and issue written instructions to the crews.
4. Monitor all Ms F’s collections for one month following this decision.
5. Produce an up-to-date waste collections policy to ensure this is readily available for staff and managers.
25. The Council should provide us with evidence it has taken these actions

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Final decision

26. There was fault by the Council. The actions the Council has agreed to take remedy the injustice caused. I have completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman