Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about litter being left on the street following household waste collections. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The injustice to Mr X is not significant enough to warrant an investigation and it is unlikely we could add anything to the Council’s response.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained council staff regularly leave litter on his street after collecting household waste. Mr X says he has reported this to the Council numerous times, but the situation has not improved. Mr X says he has to pick up the litter causing inconvenience.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In response to Mr X’s complaints the Council said it had investigated. This included viewing CCTV footage and speaking to staff. The Council said that on one occasion litter had been left on the street before the waste collection crew arrived. An officer had visited on the same day to collect the waste. CCTV footage showed on another day waste had blown out of containers. There was no CCTV footage from a third occasion Mr X had reported a problem, but the crew had been spoken to.
6. While I do understand Mr X’s frustrations, we will not start an investigation into his complaint. We are funded by the public purse and have an obligation to use our limited resources in an effective, efficient, and economic manner. We only investigate the most serious cases.
7. In this case the injustice to Mr X is not significant enough to warrant our involvement. Also, we will not normally investigate where an investigation is unlikely to add anything to the one already undertaken by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome. That applies here as our intervention would not achieve anything more for Mr X. The Council has investigated and responded to Mr X’s complaints. Its investigation and the steps taken such as speaking to the waste collection crew are in line with those we would expect. Any further issues should be reported to the Council as it is in the best position to deal with them.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the injustice is not significant enough and an investigation would be unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman