Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about missed bin collections by the Council and how it responded to the complainant about the problem. This is because any injustice to the complainant is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. The complainant (Mr X) complains about the Council failing to collect his household waste on three occassions. He is also unhappy with the responses he received from the Council and considers his complaint was not properly dealt with. Mr X says the issues have caused him much aggravation. He also explains the alleged fault amounts to him suffering financial loss as he has paid tax for Council services which in this case have not been delivered.
2. As a desired outcome, Mr X wants the Council to respond to the issues raised, rectify the problem and provide a refund of an amount paid in council tax.

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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 any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, 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

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

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My assessment

5. The complaint centrally concerns a number of missed bin collections which the Council has responded to. I note the Council has acknowledged the issues raised by Mr X and, in my view, provided him with appropriate advice about to how report missed collections so that recollection can be organised. The Ombudsman is only required to accept a complaint where the complainant has been caused a significant and personal injustice because of fault by the Council. In short, this means Mr X needs to show he has suffered serious loss, harm or distress due to the missed collections by the Council. While I recognise what Mr X says and that the alleged fault has caused him inconvenience, I do not consider this to be a matter which has caused him serious loss, harm or distress and therefore warrants our involvement. I did consider what Mr X said about poor complaint handling, but do not consider it to be a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about the complaints process where we will not consider the substantive issues raised.

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Final decision

6. We will not investigate this complaint because any injustice to the complainant is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman