A resident received hundreds of pounds in compensation from Trafford Council after at least 20 bin collections were missed at her home over the course of one year.

The woman, referred to as Miss X, complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman due to dissatisfaction with the council's response to the issue.

According to the complaint, Miss X has health issues and she receives assisted collections as a result, where the bins are taken from an agreed location and returned to the same location once emptied.

But when a number of these bin collections were missed last year, she reported it to Trafford Council.

The council's response was to tell Miss X to wait until the next time, or to attend the recycling centre.

And although it started to monitor the issue towards the end of last year, there were still times when Miss X reported the assisted collections were missed.

On multiple occasions, she needed to arrange her own bin collections with a private company due to an accumulation of rubbish.

In its defence to the ombudsman, Trafford Council cited challenges from coronavirus to a cyber attack. It claimed Miss X contributed to the issue as the amount of rubbish she produced was 'excessive'.

But the ombudsman still found fault with the council and ruled in favour of Miss X.

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The ruling reads: "I understand the challenges the council faced in maintaining an effective waste collection service. However, the evidence I have seen shows a significant loss of service for Miss X over a period of twelve months.

"During this time, the council failed to ensure it emptied Miss X’s bins, when due, on 20 occasions that I am aware of. This is fault.

"This fault caused Miss X distress and inconvenience, both with the waste collection and the council’s failure to resolve the problem.

"Miss X has also been put to unnecessary time and trouble trying to resolve this matter. This is injustice and I will recommend a remedy to address this."

The ombudsman also found fault with how Trafford Council handled the issue and how it communicated with the service provider.

The council was ordered to apologise and pay £400 to Miss X, as well as reimbursing her for the bin collections with a private company.

A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: "We would like to apologise for the distress caused and we accept the ombudsman’s decision.

"The Covid pandemic, along with a change of bin collection routes, led to a period of disruption, but it does not excuse the failure to provide a high standard of service in this instance.

"We will be making sure our complaints procedures are better handled, as well as making sure the complainant does not have any further issues over the collection of refuse."

This article was written by Jack Tooth. Jack is the reporter for The Messenger and covers anything and everything from within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford.

To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.