Can I sue my local council?

[DIYGirlz]

My council has repeatedly failed to collect rubbish. When they do come, it's random whether they take all or just some bags. For 6 years I (and all my neighbours) have left a wheelie bin filled with orange (recycling) or black (general) rubbish bags. There has been no problem until recently. I complained 8 times and eventually received a letter stating that bin men would only take bags left out, and not from inside the wheelie. Well, this is actually a health hazard - the fox population rip apart any bagged rubbish and we, the residents, are then left to collect all the debris. Still, the council jobsworths are having none of it. Some weeks we might have some bags taken, other weeks they just don't turn up. I'm fed up with this - I pay council tax and I expect a basic rubbish collection service. I've ended up taking rubbish to the tip myself to clear the backlog.
Is there any mileage in suing the council for failing to provide this service? I've logged all dates when the service has not been provided.

[wales01man]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

Think you would lose they have said they willtakebags but not remove them from inside a wheelie bin think they are doing the correct thing,

[Kati]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

which council?

[DIYGirlz]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

It's London Havering . It's not so much that they don't take from wheelie (btw, they've emptied the wheelies for over 6 years, no fuss - no one knows when or why they changed policy), it's more that some weeks they don't bother turning up at all...

[wales01man]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

If our council do not take the bins or not turn up we phone and they do take them pronto if yours don't contact them and your councillor as you say you are paying for this service

[DIYGirlz]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

Part of the issue is that I have complained. In fact every time the rubbish isn't collected I complain but the council ignore my emails or simply aren't interested if I phone . It's soooo frustrating

[teaboy2]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

report them to the local government ombudsman - http://www.lgo.org.uk/

That will start the ball rolling.

Ohh and tell your neighbours to do the same too... More the merrier as they say!

[stevemLS]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

In general you can't simply report them to the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman will only consider a complaint once it has exhausted the formal complaints mechanism operated by the council. (see here http://www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint/ and Part III Local Government Act 1974).

Part of the criteria for deciding whether to investigate is that you must have suffered an "injustice", in my view you have not, you have suffered an inconvenience.

Councils have a wide discretion on systems and processes they operate with respect to collection of domestic waste and can impose requirements on householders, in some circumstances on pain of criminal liability for failure to comply, as to how they deal with waste and how they present it for collection - that was how they were able to impose wheelie bins which were initially not popular and is how they can regulate, for example, putting waste in bags in bins. (see, for example, s46 and s46A Environmental Protection Act 1990).

So, the long way of saying no.

[teaboy2]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

Its the non collection issue (i.e. when they not even bother to turn up on collection day) the OP is complaining about, not the putting bags in/out of bins.

And now they just ignore OP.

[stevemLS]

Re: Can I sue my local council?

Appreciate that was included in the complaint, but was also complaining about inconsistency in whether bags were taken.

Since 1st Jan 2015, councils have been obliged to collect recyclable waste and non-recyclables in separate collections, which is why, I think most, councils have changed to alternate weeks. So if orange (recycling) bags are left in general wheelie bins I can see why they wouldn't take them.

It is difficult to see what OP would sue for, council tax only funds about 20% of council spending, the vast majority coming from block grant, with few exceptions it is not ring fenced, so waste collection council tax represents 20% of a very small proportion of the whole.

If some sort of mandatory order was sought compelling the council to collect on specified days I can't see a court granting that given the discretion councils have as to how it is organised.

A formal complaint via your local councillor is the first step.