Summary: Ms D says the Council has repeatedly failed to collect her refuse. We found evidence of ongoing fault by the Council and have upheld the complaint and completed the investigation because the Council agrees to carry out monitoring and pay redress.

The complaint

1. The complainant (whom I refer to as Ms D) says the Council repeatedly fails to collect her refuse and recycling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

4. I have considered the information provided by Ms D. I asked the Council questions and examined its response.
5. I shared my draft decision with both parties.

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What I found

What happened

6. Through 2022 Ms D reported missed refuse and recycling collections to the Council. In total there were 21 missed collections to her home in 2022 and three in the first five weeks of 2023.
7. On 29 September 2022 Ms D complained to the Council about the ongoing missed collections. The Council responded on 30 September. It was swapping to an alternative collection crew to service Ms D’s road to ensure more regular collections. It accepted Ms D’s road had been “missed on a regular basis”.
8. Ms D escalated her complaint on 7 October, the missed collections were still happening. The Council sent its substantive reply on 21 November. It said its collection service had faced challenges and was being modernised. Collections to the road had “not been up to standard” and it apologised. The road was now being served by an alternative crew.

What should have happened

9. The Council should collect household waste on a weekly basis and recycling is collected fortnightly. If a resident experiences a missed collection, they can report this online or direct to the waste contractor.
10. Where a resident is reporting repeat problems, the waste contractor should be picking them up via reports to its Operations Manager.
11. The Council has regular crews assigned to areas. It also uses a “small calls crew” to cover sites where there are missed collections. The Council says this approach resulted in an “unreliable service”. It states it has “ formalised arrangements” including difficult to access locations but I do not have any details on how these new arrangement operate.
12. The Council also states in November 2022 it set up a weekly meeting to look at missed collections. Again, I have no details or evidence of how this operates.
13. The Council further says its plans to install new technology into refuse trucks to improve communications.

Was there fault by the Council

14. There is clear and ongoing fault by the Council in this case.
15. Ms D has experienced at least 21 missed collections in 2022, the problem persists with more missed collections in 2023. This is an unreasonable level of service.
16. Ms D has reported the problem several times to the Council and it is aware of the ongoing issue. However, I have seen no evidence to show what useful and effective action has been taken by the Council to end this lack of service. The Council says its waste contractor should compile regular reports for missed collections. I have not seen any of these or how they were evaluated and acted upon. The Council says it implemented weekly meetings in November 2022 but, again, I have no evidence of these meetings finding a useful and timely solution to the missed collections impacting on Ms D. In addition, the Council used an alternative crew and put this forward to Ms D as a way to resolve her complaint, yet the Council tells me such crews resulted in an unreliable service.
17. The Council says that missed collections have mainly been due to staffing issues and vehicle breakdowns. However, it also then refers to Ms D’s road being difficult to access. It may be there are various reasons why Ms D has experienced such a poor level of service but the Council has not fully explained this to her in either of its complaint responses.

Did the fault cause an injustice

18. The repeated missed collections meant Ms D had to continue making reports to the Council and then formal complaints. She has been put to unnecessary time and trouble as a result of the Council’s failings.

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Agreed action

19. The Council agreed to carry out my recommendations. It will draw up an action plan which identifies the main factors causing the missed collections and how it is going to address them. In addition, it should monitor Ms D’s collections for eight weeks. If missed collections occur it should investigate the cause and identify what steps to take to prevent a recurrence.
20. The Council will also look at its reporting system. It says that repeat problems are flagged up. I do not see that, if this happened, it then lead to any remedial action that worked. Given the problem is ongoing the Council will review what part of its procedures are working and what needs to be improved.
21. It will also write and apologise to Ms D, explain its planned actions and provide a named officer who Ms D can contact to report any further missed collections. A payment of £150 will be made to Ms D in recognition of her time and trouble in this case.
22. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions within four weeks.

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Final decision

23. I have upheld the complaint and completed the investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman