Sandwell Council forgot to empty a disabled woman’s bins for a month

Sandwell Council has been told to pay £200 to the unnamed woman after missing several bin collections last year despite her being on a high-priority list.

Sandwell Council had blamed roadworks from gas pipe upgrades for the missed collections but said it accepted the findings of the ombudsman’s report and apologised.

The local authority said it was working with its waste partner Serco, which holds a £650m 25-year contract with Sandwell Council, to make sure it does not happen again.

The ombudsman said the council caused the woman “avoidable time and trouble” and told the local authority to pay £200 compensation and to make improvements.

The woman had told the local government ombudsman she “felt like she wasn’t being heard” and discriminated against after her neighbours’ bins were still collected despite roadworks in the street. She had also injured herself moving bin bags when some of the collections were missed.

Complaint made to Sandwell Council in 2023

A complaint was first made to Sandwell Council in August 2023 and the woman was told she could escalate that complaint to the local government ombudsman but did not until a year later.

She had been on the council’s list for assisted bin collections due to her disability since 2022.

A collection was missed on May 17 last year but then her bins were emptied on May 31, according to the ombudsman’s report. The woman’s bins were then not collected for another month before finally being emptied on June 24.

The woman then complained again to the council saying the bins had been collected with the roadworks still in place and she could not understand why her bins had not been collected in the previous month – when the roadworks had been used as an excuse by the council.

The woman told the council she had been forced to put bin bags in all three bins because of the missed collections – including green garden waste – and asked for it all to be collected but the green bin was not collected when the council returned.

Moving the bin bags had “exacerbated” a shoulder injury, the woman told the ombudsman, and she wanted compensation from the council, not an apology.

The council said on June 27 that it had told bin crews that the woman’s bins must be collected “without fail” only for the collection to be missed again a day later with roadworks again blamed.

The woman was listed as a “high priority” on July 3 only for the bins to not be collected again on July 5.

The woman received an apology on August 12 with Sandwell Council saying there had not been any discrimination and no compensation was available. Bin crews could only move cones from the roadworks ‘within the law’, the council told the woman.

The ombudsman ruled that Sandwell Council had “repeatedly failed” – even according to its own records – to collect the bins which was a “significant failure” and the woman had received “poor” and “inadequate” responses to her complaints.

The ombudsman also said the council could not provide records on when the roadworks were in place or when neighbours’ bins were collected. The council could also not explain how it works with utility companies to avoid disruption when roadworks are in place and how contingency plans are explained to residents.

A spokesperson for Sandwell Council said: “We apologise for any inconvenience caused and fully accept the findings of the report.