Summary: Mr X complained the Council has repeatedly failed to collect the household waste from his street. Mr X says they had no collections at all for three months between May and late August 2024 and that since then although some collections have been made, the waste is still not routinely collected as scheduled. We found the Council’s repeated failure to collect the household waste and recycling from Mr X’s street is fault. This led to an accumulation of waste in the street that is unsightly and smells unpleasant. 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 the household waste from his street. Mr X says they had no collections at all for three months between May and late August 2024 and that since then although some collections have been made, the waste is still not routinely collected as scheduled.
2. Mr X also complains that when the waste is collected the crews will not collect the accumulated side waste.
3. This has led to an accumulation of waste in the street that is unsightly and smells unpleasant.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
5. 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

6. 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; and
• 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

7. 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.
8. The Council's practice is to make a weekly household waste collection and a fortnightly recycling collection.
9. 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

10. Mr X says there were changes to the collection crew in May 2024 which resulted in repeated missed collections. Mr X says the collection vehicle would collect from the first fifty or so houses but not from his section of the estate.
11. According to the Council’s records Mr X reported seven missed household waste collections and two missed recycling collections between May and October 2024. A number of Mr X’s neighbours have also reported missed household waste and recycling collections in the same period.
12. The records state a number of these collections were missed due to access issues and collections for the whole road were dropped. The reports are all closed which indicates the Council has since made the missed collections.
13. However Mr X says the household waste was not collected at all for six consecutive weeks leading to an unsightly and smelly accumulation of waste.
14. On 8 June 2024 Mr X made a formal complaint to the Council. He complained the household waste and recycling collections due on 31 May 2024 were missed and the waste had still not been collected. The whole street had been missed and there was now two weeks’ worth of rubbish accumulating on the street. Mr X asked the Council to collect the household waste and recycling together with all the bags of side waste.
15. The Council responded on 11 June 2024 and apologised for the poor service and inconvenience. It said it had been experiencing operational/ staffing issues which had impacted on collections. The crews were now starting later in the mornings due to operational changes and this was causing access issues for some crews as there was more traffic on the roads. The Council said that where possible crews were covering missed collections.
16. Mr X was not satisfied with the Council’s response and remained concerned about the accumulation of waste which had still not been collected. On 18 June 2024 Mr X contacted the Council asking for the issue to be resolved and the waste collected. He said the accumulation of waste and the mess from ripped bags was affecting his mental health. There is no record the Council responded to Mr X’s email.
17. On 28 June 2024 Mr X telephoned the Council as the household waste had now not been collected for six weeks. Mr X told the Council he had spoken to the collection crew and the new driver had confirmed they were not confident to reverse the collection vehicle up to Mr X’s part of the estate. He said every property had its own drive so parked cars were not an issue, and the road was not narrow, but there was a blind corner the vehicle had to reverse around. Mr X asked the Council how this issue could be resolved as moving all the bins to a collection point would block the road.
18. The Council agreed to review his complaint at stage two of its process and noted the complaint as ‘missed refuse access issues’. Mr X clarified there were no access issues, rather the current driver was unable to reverse up the estate. He noted the previous driver had managed to go up and down the estate without problem, and the recycling team also gets up and down the estate.
19. In its response the Council apologised it had not made collections as scheduled. It said it had been advised access was tight due to parked cars. The Council used a smaller alleycat vehicle to make recycling collections and the long term plan was to move refuse collections to this type of vehicle as soon as one was available. The Council said that due to increase parking and restricted access the demand on the smaller vehicles outweighs the resource.
20. In addition the Council said it was up to the driver of the vehicle to identify whether they felt the road could be safely accessed by reversing to the properties at the top of the estate.
21. The Council upheld Mr X’s complaint that collections were not being made. It acknowledged the inconvenience caused when collections are not made as scheduled and said all it could do was ask residents to park with consideration to allow access for large vehicles on the scheduled days.
22. As Mr X remains dissatisfied in August 2024 he asked the Ombudsman to investigate his complaint. Mr X said the Council had not collected his household waste since 24 May 2024. He said this was mentally exhausting as the estate smells and there are ripped rubbish bags all over the place.
23. Mr X confirmed in November 2024 that the service had improved but the waste was still not consistently collected each week. He was also concerned that when a collection was missed the Council would not collect the additional side waste that had accumulated at the next collection.
24. In response to my enquiries the Council has reiterated that Mr X’s estate has access issues caused by parked cars. It says this is made worse by limited turning space which prevents regular sized refuse vehicles from accessing the top of the estate. The Council says the depot has now changed to a smaller collection vehicle, as it had already done for recycling. This is more suitable for Mr X’s estate. It says it took a while to put this into service as the demand for the smaller vehicles outweighs the resource available.
25. The Council has also reiterated that it is up to the driver to decide whether the road can be safely accessed by reversing to properties at the top of the estate. This includes when they are driving the smaller alley cat vehicle. It also confirmed crews are not expected to walk up to collect and return the bins unless there are assisted collections.

Analysis

26. It is clear from the Council’s records that it has repeatedly failed to collect the household waste and recycling from Mr X’s estate. These failings in the service amount to fault.
27. Mr X and his neighbours have reported numerous consecutive missed collections and I am not persuaded the Council’s records are an accurate reflection of when this missed waste was collected. It is concerning that the Council appears to have closed the reports of missed collections between May and August 2024 when Mr X says it had not collected any household waste during this period.
28. The Council has now taken action to resolve the issues by allocating a smaller alley cat vehicle to make Mr X’s collections. This is to be welcomed, but I consider the Council should have taken action sooner to ensure Mr X, and his neighbours’ waste was collected as scheduled.
29. The Council was aware in May/ early June 2024 that the collection vehicle was not accessing Mr X’s part of the estate, but there is no evidence it took any action to ensure collections could be made.
30. The documentation provided suggests the Council’s assumption that access was restricted by parked cars was based on google images of Mr X’s estate, rather than any site visits or investigation. The response to Mr X’s complaint says that all it could do was ask residents to park with consideration to allow access for large vehicles on the scheduled days. Yet there is no record of any communication with residents regarding parking or access.
31. Nor is there evidence of any consideration of alternative arrangements for the collection of the household waste, which was accumulating weekly on Mr X’s estate.
32. Having identified fault, I must now consider whether this has caused Mr X an injustice. Mr X has had to find ways to manage the uncollected recycling left at his property and has had to dispose of this himself at the recycling centre.
33. As the missed collections affect the whole street Mr X has not only had to manage his own uncollected recycling, but he has also had to endure large amounts of uncollected waste on the estate, over a sustained period of time. The accumulated waste means the area looks untidy, potentially attracts rodents and causes unpleasant smells
34. Mr X has also experienced frustration and disappointment, both with the missed collections and the Council’s failure to resolve the problem. Mr X has been put to unnecessary time and trouble in trying to resolve this matter.

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Agreed action

35. The Council has agreed to:
• apologise to Mr X and pay him £200 in recognition of the frustration, difficulties the failure to make regular waste collections has caused. 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.
• monitor Mr X’s household waste and recycling collections for eight weeks to ensure the collections are now consistently carried out properly. We are aware of the ongoing industrial action which may disrupt the waste collection service. The Council’s monitoring should clearly record when strike action has affected Mr X’s collection day and when the waste was subsequently collected.
36. The Council should take his action with 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

37. The Council’s repeated failure to collect the household waste and recycling from Mr X’s estate 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