Birmingham City Council (24 016 646)
Category : Environment and regulation > Refuse and recycling
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 04 Mar 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
The complaint
- Ms X complained the Council repeatedly failed to collect her household waste after she asked for a replacement bin. She said while the Council acknowledged a delay in providing her with a replacement bin and assured her the collection crew would collect her waste in bin bags in the meantime, multiple collections were missed.
- She said this was causing avoidable distress, attracting rodents, and affecting her sister's health. She wants the Council to ensure waste collections continue until her replacement bin arrives.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X requested a replacement bin from the Council. The Council informed her there was a delay in delivering replacement bins from its depot and bins were being delivered in the order requests were received. The Council assured her its collection crew would collect her waste if she placed it in waste bags in the meantime. Despite this assurance, Ms X said the Council failed to collect the waste bags on multiple occasions.
- In its complaint response, the Council apologised for the delay in delivering the requested replacement bin and for failing to collect her waste”. The Council apologised for the avoidable frustration this had caused her.
- While reporting multiple missed collections will have caused Ms X avoidable frustration, the Council apologised, reminded its crew to collect her waste and ensured her waste bags were collected promptly. Therefore we will not investigate Ms X’s complaint. further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman