A family have been given hundreds of pounds in compensation for failings
A Biffa bin collection team in Caldy(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Improvements are being made to more than 350,000 bin collections after an investigation forced the council to pay out hundreds of pounds to a family. Wirral Council has apologised to all residents “who suffered a lower standard of service as a result of our failings in this case”.
The local authority was investigated after a Wirral mum, referred to as Ms X, complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) after the council kept missing her daughter’s bin collections. She said the council “failed to resolve the issues despite repeated reports”.
The LGO found the council had delivered for the daughter, referred to as Ms Y, “a poor service, failed to resolve reported issues, and issued a poor response”. The watchdog said: “This caused avoidable distress to Ms Y because of a loss of service, and avoidable distress, time, and trouble to Ms X in complaining on her behalf.”
In response, the council has been ordered to pay a remedy to both mother and daughter, monitor Ms Y’s collections, and issue staff with reminders. Wirral Council has also been told to improve its record keeping and “ensure proper oversight of the review that its third-party waste contractor [Biffa] is carrying out about failings in the service.”
The complaint came about because Ms Y’s bin collections had been missed from mid-2023 onwards. The mum said “the council did not resolve the issues despite repeated reports” and “caused distress and frustration to both her and her daughter”.
Ms Y shared a private driveway with several neighbours who used to leave their bins next to their properties. They were then later told to leave the bins in one place but collections still kept on being missed.
This was reported and complained about several times. In response to complaints, the council said there was a known issue of garden waste collections in Ms Y’s area and the council did not have the capacity to collect all the bins on the route in one day.
However the council said Ms Y was not entitled to compensation. The complaint escalated but the council said it would not change the single collection point for the driveway.
After Ms X complained to the LGO in November 2024, things improved but after about a month, they got worse again. From December 2024 to May 2025, collections were still missed.
The LGO did not find the council at fault for changing the bin collection point. However the council’s records were found to be unreliable and the council was found at fault for how it responded to the complaints.
From the evidence provided, investigators found 27% of Ms Y’s refuse collections were missed, 23% of her recycling, and 38% of her garden waste which she will have paid extra money for. However the LGO believes more bin collections will have been missed than this.
The council was told to apologise to both mother and daughter for the issues and pay them £600 in total. The council was also told to create an action plan and review all collections that failed to finish on time.
A Wirral Council spokesperson said: “We fully accept the findings of the Ombudsman and would like to apologise to all the residents who suffered a lower standard of service as a result of our failings in this case.
“Working alongside our waste collection contractor, Biffa, we have developed an action plan to address the recommendations and improve the service for all residents.”