Law change lets council claw back £60,000 waste refund

The Local Government Ombudsman found Hull Council guilty of maladministration following a complaint by Rossmore Nursing Home in the city.

The authority paid a £5,350 refund to the home last week and is now in the process of reimbursing all the other homes affected.

However, an amendment to the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 means councils will be able to apply the charges from April 6.

Ombusdsman Anne Seex found the existing regulations did not allow councils to charge care homes for disposing of waste, although they could charge for collecting it.

Ms Seex said this should have been clear from a Government circular issued in 1992, and the city council should refund all the charges it had applied between then and April 2008, when it change its policy.

Her report said: “The council has no lawful power to charge care homes for disposing of non-clinical waste. It must follow that it has no lawful power to retain the money it collected from the home managed by Mr N and others.

“There is no suggestion that the council acted in bad faith but it has acted with maladministration in making the charges and keeping the money up to April 2008.

“The council’s maladministration has caused Mr N and others involved in providing residential care homes the injustice of paying charges that should not have been made.”

She added: “It has caused Mr N the additional injustice of the time and trouble in having to pursue his complaint.”

A consultation over the legislation was carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which resulted in the changes allowing the charges to be made.

Doug Sharp, the council’s assistant head of service for waste and open spaces, confirmed the charges would be applied.

He said: “As soon as the Government clarified the situation with regard to the complicated area of legislation we revised our charging policy.

“However, the Government recently carried out consultation regarding the legislation and it has now been amended to reflect the widespread consensus that the charge for disposal and collection can be applied. This will now take place from early April.”