A COUNCIL has apologised and paid £200 compensation to a resident, following a complaint over rubbish collections.

Darlington Borough Council accepted it had not treated the complainant fairly, after they complained to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) over the issue.

The complainant approached the LGO after failing to resolve the matter with the council directly.

The row started when the complainant was issued with a notice explaining when and where to leave their bin out for collection, after a neighbour reported them to the council for leaving it on a footpath.

Other residents in the street, who had left their bins on the footpath, had not received notices.

Town hall chief subsequently wrote to all residents in the street asking them to place their bins out for collection at the edge of their property.

A review detailing the outcome of complaints made to the LGO was presented to members of the council's cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday (December 2).

The bins issue was one of ten cases involving the council, which were adjudicated upon by the LGO between April and September this year.

Of those cases, four were closed after initial inquiries with no further action deemed necessary and two were closed after being judged outside the LGO's jurisdiction.

One complaint, relating to the council's alleged failure to properly assess a disabled person's long-term needs when providing adaptations of their home, was not upheld with no further action taken.

Three complaints, including the bin collection row, were upheld with the LGO finding maladministration and/or injustice.

In one case, the council failed to complete agreed actions following a previous complaint to the LGO over the council's inaction over an individual being forced off a plot of land they were renting from the authority.

The council had failed to provide the complainant in this case with a three-monthly update as agreed.

It apologised and committed to doing so in future.

The final upheld complaint concerned the council's repeated failure to return a wheeled bin to the position it was left out for collection, blocking the complainant's driveway.

The complainant lived on a main road, close to a bus stop, meaning the bin's position caused difficulties from them when they returned home.

The council apologised for poor service and agreed its head of environmental services would meet with the complainant.

Correspondence between the LGO and the council is treated as confidential to preserve the anonymity of complainants.