Decision Report 201402520

Summary

Mr C complained that the council failed to ensure that scheduled refuse and recycling collections took place at his building.

We looked at Mr C's complaints to the council, the council's responses, and the council's records of inspection of cleansing operations. We found that there had been problems with collections at times over the past three years. Mr C had to contact the council repeatedly over this time, which indicated a poor standard of service from the council, who appeared to be failing in their responsibility to deal effectively with collections at Mr C's building.

We found there was a lack of co-ordination and poor communication about the collections within the relevant council department. We noted that the department was seeking a long-term resolution to the problem. However, based on the evidence, we concluded that the problem had not been resolved. We upheld Mr C's complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the council:

• apologise to Mr C for their failure to ensure that scheduled refuse and recycling collections took place; and
• review the presentation and collection of refuse and recycling at Mr C's building to ensure that scheduled collections take place.