Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refuse collections. This is because the Council has investigated and resolved the issues with Mr X’s missed collections, and it is unlikely we could add to its Council’s investigation or achieve anything more for Mr X.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council failed to collect his bins after it declined a request to collect from a new location. Mr X says the Council initially agreed to collect from the new location but then advised it had done so in error. He also says that the Council used incorrect or misleading data regarding the missed collections.
2. Mr X has also complained a member of staff made comments about him in internal communications and he believes these comments amount to slander.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X asked for an assisted bin collection from the rear of his property in December 2022. The Council initially agreed but then contacted him shortly after to advise it should not have done so. It apologised for its error.
7. Mr X says that between February and April 2023, the Council missed four out of eight collections which he believed was to do with the location of the collection. The Council says this was due to poor contractor performance. The Council also advised the missed collection rate was 20% due to the way in which it calculates the rate. The Council explained how it reached this calculation.
8. The Council says it has addressed the poor performance with the contractor and Mr X confirms its recent collections have gone without incident. We could not therefore achieve anything more.
9. While corresponding with the Council about his bin collection issue Mr X made a subject access request (SAR) for information the Council held about him. Mr X found within the correspondence released to him that a Council employee made a statement about him to a colleague which he was unhappy with. The Council has apologised for the statement. We could not likely achieve more than this because claims of defamation are properly for the courts which can apply the correct legal tests.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely that we could add to any previous investigation the Council completed or that further investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman