Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling on the scheduled days. He complains this has been an ongoing issue for several years and the Council has failed to take appropriate or effective action to resolve it. We found the Council’s continued failure to collect Mr X’s recycling on the scheduled day is fault. This led to an accumulation of waste on the street and Mr X has spent a considerable amount of time picking up litter that has been blown around following missed collections. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Mr X and monitor his collections.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect his household waste and recycling on the scheduled days. He says the Council only collects the waste from the bottom half of the street, and his section of the road is routinely missed. Mr X complained this has been an ongoing issue for several years and the Council has failed to take appropriate or effective action to resolve it.

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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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future 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. As part of the investigation, I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided;
• discussed the issues with Mr X;
• Mr X 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

Refuse and recycling collections

5. Councils have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to arrange for the collection of household waste and recycling from properties in its area. The collections do not have to be weekly and councils can decide the type of bins or boxes people must use.
6. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
7. When a resident reports a missed collection, the Depot will ask the crew to return to complete the round as soon as possible. When the Council has completed the collection, it closes the report.

What happened here

8. This is the second time Mr X has complained to the Ombudsman about failings in the waste collection service he receives. Our first investigation found the Council had repeatedly failed to collect Mr X’s household waste and recycling on the scheduled days. In late 2022 we upheld his complaint and recommended the Council monitor Mr X’s waste collections to identify any reasons for the failings in service and to ensure collections were carried out correctly.
9. Mr X says that while the Council was monitoring the collections, the waste was collected. But the service then deteriorated again in 2023. He says they logged numerous missed reports during 2023 but the service did not improve. The cases were closed or passed to the depot.
10. Mr X made a formal complaint about the missed recycling collections in November 2023. He said they were back to the situation where the Council only collects the bins from half the road and the bins on his half of the road are missed. Mr X asked the Council to collect his bins on the scheduled day.
11. The Council responded to Mr X on 6 December 2023 and advised his contact was a service request which fell outside the scope of the complaint procedure. The Council advised Mr X to report the missed collection to waste services.
12. In January 2024 Mr X asked the Ombudsman to investigate his concerns. He said the Council had only collected his recycling on the scheduled day once in November and December 2023. As Mr X had not completed the Council’s complaint process, we referred his complaint back to the Council to respond.
13. The Council responded to Mr X on 7 February 2024 and apologised for the delay. Having looked again at Mr X’s case the Council noted the missed collections were ongoing and his complaint should not have been rejected as a service request. It had provided feedback to the officer who initially dealt with Mr X’s complaint.
14. It noted Mr X’s recycling was not collected as scheduled on 14 November 2023, or 28 November 2023. This was a consecutive missed collection and the third out of four recycling collections missed. Mr X’s recycling was also not collected on 28 December 2023.
15. The Council apologised for the lack of service and noted Mr X had not reported any further missed collections since 28 December 2023.
16. Mr X did not feel the Council’s response resolved the issue. It had only referred to the missed collections in November and December 2023 and had not acknowledged the numerous other missed collections in 2023. Nor had it explained why collections were missed, or how the problem would be resolved. He asked the Council to keep the complaint open and provide him with a direct route to report any further issues.
17. The Council told Mr X the depot had been experiencing some operational issues that had impacted on some of the collection routes. It advised Mr X to contact Officer 1 if there were any further problems.
18. Mr X reported three consecutive missed collections in April 2024. The recycling was collected within a couple of days. Mr X again questioned why only half of the road was being collected as scheduled.
19. In mid-April 2024 Officer 1 told Mr X the collection crews were starting later than previously and this may have affected them finishing the road. They said there were no notes as to why the collection on 16 April 2024 was missed, just that it would be collected the following day.
20. Officer 1 contacted Mr X again on 1 May 2024 and explained the collection scheduled for 30 April 2024 was missed as Mr X’s road was on the dropped list. The Council had had a lot of vehicle issues and breakdowns and were hoping to complete the collection within the next day or two.
21. In June 2024 Mr X made a further complaint about the missed collections. He noted the Council had made numerous commitments to resolve the issue but it continued. Mr X said he had lost faith the issue would ever be resolved.
22. The Council registered Mr X’s complaint for a review at stage two of its complaint process. Officer 1 then responded and explained the Council had been experiencing some localised disruption to the household collection service in the past few weeks due to operational issues. The Council’s records showed the recycling collections were completed on 11 June and 25 June 2024. But the whole round was not showing as collected on 9 July 2024.
23. Officer 1 apologised for the disruption and difficulty caused and said the Council was doing everything it could to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
24. The following week, Mr X reported further missed collections. Officer 1 confirmed the Council’s records showed Mr X’s the household waste and recycling had been missed. They said the round had been dropped due to a vehicle breakdown and could not confirm when the waste would be collected.
25. Mr X has again asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. Mr X says the missed collections have a real impact on his community as his road seems to be impacted more than others. He says he and his wife have spent a considerable amount of time picking up litter that has been blown around following missed collections.
26. Mr X would like the Council to take the matter seriously and provide a long term solution to the problem. He is unhappy the same excuses are given time after time and nothing changes. Mr X no longer reports missed collections.
27. In response to my enquiries the Council noted Mr X has not reported any missed collections since July 2024. The Council’s records also show Mr X’s neighbours have not reported any missed collections since July 2024.
28. According to the Council’s records Mr X reported seven missed recycling collections between November 2023 and July 2024. Save for the first on 14 November 2023, the Council says the missed collections were due to the whole road being dropped due to either staffing or vehicle issues. Other residents on Mr X’s road reported an additional three missed collections, one of which is referred to in Mr X’s complaints but not included on the Council’s list.
29. The Council says that where it drops a round the whole road is missed and this is not classified as a missed collection. When it drops a round the Council aims to collect the dropped collection by the next scheduled collection, but it says this is not always possible.
30. Mr X’s road is divided between more than one collection crew. The Council says this means it is feasible for part of the road to be collected while another part is dropped. It says that when only one side is dropped it is not the other side’s responsibility to pick up the dropped collection as this is not their designated route. The dropped route is instead picked up when there is crew and vehicle availability.
31. To improve the service since Mr X’s last complaint to us the Council says it has tendered a contract from band new collection vehicles which it hopes will arrive by the end of the year. These vehicles will replace the old unreliable vehicles and lower the number of vehicle breakdowns.
32. The Council has also taken on more agency Light Goods Vehicle (LGV) drivers and loaders to cover sickness absence which will again help to lessen the amount of dropped roads. In addition the Council is training more permanent staff to attain their LGV licence so that there are more staff available to drive the vehicle when there are staffing issues. And it is developing a succession plan to implement a recruitment drive to help reduce the number of staff vacancies in the service.

Analysis

33. It is clear from the documentation available that there have been further missed recycling collections from Mr X’s half of the road in 2023 and 2024. The continued failure to collect Mr X’s recycling as scheduled is fault.
34. The Council notes Mr X has not reported any missed collections since late July 2024, but I am not persuaded this means the collections are now consistently made as scheduled.
35. Mr X told the Council when he complained that he had lost faith that the issue would ever be resolved and would not waste time reporting each missed collection.
36. I recognise the Council has operational difficulties with staffing issues and vehicle breakdowns, but this has been the case for a number of years. Given the apparent regularity with which Mr X’s section of the road is dropped I would have expected the Council investigate why Mr X’s road is particularly affected and take action to address this, both in the short and longer term.
37. The Council’s action to recruit and train staff and the purchase of new vehicles will improve the reliability of the service and is to be welcomed. But these long term solutions inevitably take to time implement and there is no evidence of any action to improve the service Mr X receives in the meantime.
38. There was also fault in the way the Council dealt with Mr X’s complaint. Mr X’s contact in November 2023 referred to weekly missed collections and the bins from only half the street being collected. This was clearly a complaint and should not have been rejected as a service request. The Council only reviewed the matter following our contact. And then did not provide an explanation for the issues or a solution.
39. The Council’s complaint process say that complaints will be reviewed at stage two by an independent council officer. In this instance Officer 1 considered Mr X’s complaints at both stages of the complaint process. This is clearly contrary to the Council’s procedure and amounts to fault.
40. The fault identified has caused Mr X an injustice. He has had to find ways to manage the uncollected waste and has spent considerable time picking up litter and cardboard which has blown along the street following missed collections. Mr X has also experienced further frustration and disappointment at the Council’s failure to explain or resolve this issue.
41. We are aware of the ongoing industrial action which may disrupt the waste collection service, and that recycling service has been discontinued. We have not therefore recommended that the Council monitor Mr X’s collections in this instance.

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Agreed action

42. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mr X and pay him £250 in recognition of the frustration and difficulties the repeated failure to make scheduled recycling collections has caused.
43. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
44. The Council should take this action within eight weeks of the final decision on this complaint and provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

45. The Council’s continued failure to collect Mr X’s recycling as scheduled is fault. This fault has caused Mr X an injustice

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman