Ombudsman orders Thurrock to ensure crews are trained on in-cab system

In a ruling dated 20 November but handed down this week, the ombudsman also ordered Thurrock council to pay the resident, named as Mr X, £300 and monitor his collections over an eight-week period.

The ombudsman explained that Mr X reported 14 missed collections to the Council between May 2022 and July 2023.The Council could not confirm what the reasons for the missed collections were as the crew did not routinely use the ‘in-cab’ unit to record issues, it added. Thurrock said its system did flag up potential issues along Mr X’s street as a large number of missed collections were raised on line.

Thurrock also explained that Mr X’s street is narrow and the waste vehicle could not fit safely. Therefore, the collection was from the alleyway behind Mr X’s property (and other properties on his street).

The council said this road was unadopted and unmade with potholes and overhanging trees. It said for this reason, the waste vehicle struggled to turn down the road and collections were missed.

Fault

In its ruling, the ombudsman said the council recognised that it was failing to provide a consistent and reliable waste collection service, and there “was fault here as the council has a duty to collect domestic waste and recycling from households”.

This fault caused Mr X the inconvenience of overflowing bins and later, torn bags and loose waste being left in the street behind his house.

Also, the ruling explained that crews “did not adequately record the reasons for the missed collections using the in-cab system”, which  meant that the issues remained unresolved for longer than necessary. This was because the council “had to effectively rely of residents reporting missed collections to identify problem areas”.

Action

The council agreed to apologise to the resident for the inconvenience, pay him £300 and monitor his waste collections for an eight week period.

The ombudsman added that the council should be able, within eight weeks, to prove that refuse crews (borough-wide) are using the in-cab system regularly and provide training for them if necessary.