Complaints to Hertsmere council doubled to 1,134 in 2025/26, and 753 were about bins. What was upheld, how slow replies were, and how to complain.
Hertsmere Borough Council received 1,134 complaints in 2025/26, double the 565 of the year before. Two in every three were about bins.
The figures are in the council’s complaints handling review for 2025/26, which went to the Operations Review Committee on 22 September. The year runs from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, the same twelve months in which weekly food waste collections began and every bin round in the borough was redrawn.
Four years of complaints
The number of first-stage complaints has more than tripled since 2022/23:
- 2022/23: 354
- 2023/24: 430
- 2024/25: 565
- 2025/26: 1,134
Second-stage complaints also doubled. The council closed 161 of them in 2025/26, against 81 the year before.
Bins drove most of the rise
Waste services accounted for 753 of the 1,134 complaints, up from 285 in 2024/25. Seven in ten of the bin complaints, 527 of them, were recorded as a “failure to provide a service”. The report says bin complaints often concern missed collections.
Other services rose too, though by far less. These are the largest, from Appendix A of the report:
| Service | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|
| Waste services | 285 | 753 |
| Council tax | 47 | 76 |
| Parking | 42 | 58 |
| Housing | 44 | 57 |
| Planning | 23 | 46 |
| Parks | 33 | 29 |
The report sets the bin figure against the scale of the change. The new rounds mean more than 100,000 bins collected a week, or 5.2 million a year. It calls 753 complaints “proportionally minimal especially given the scale of change”, and says some were about fly-tipping or litter bins that might more fairly have been logged as service requests.
Missed collections are down, and the target is up
The council’s own quarterly performance report to the same meeting shows what happened to missed bins. It counts them per 100,000 collections:
- April to June 2024: 43.6
- April to June 2025, when food waste began: 234.8
- July to September 2025: 111.8
- April to June 2026: 87.9
The latest figure meets the council’s target of 90. That target used to be 60. The report says it was raised to “the more realistic outcome of 90”, after looking at councils with established food waste rounds. It blames the size of food caddies and agency staff who do not know where bins are left.
On average 107 collections were missed each week between April and June this year. The council puts that at 0.09% of all bins collected.
How many complaints were upheld
Once 96 withdrawn and 77 rejected complaints are taken out, 962 remained. Of the outcomes recorded:
- 190 were upheld
- 187 were partly upheld
- 573 were not upheld
For bins alone, 122 were upheld and 153 partly upheld, out of 700.
Parking stands out. Of 58 parking complaints, 42 were upheld, the highest share of any service.
Most answers at the first stage, 837 of them, were an explanation rather than an apology. Apologies were given in 87 cases.
Replies were often late
The council aims to answer a first-stage complaint within 15 working days. It managed that in 820 cases and missed it in 142.
The second stage is slower. The target is 25 working days, and 115 replies missed it while 39 met it. The report says this partly reflects the number of cases and partly “the Council’s commitment to carrying out thorough investigations”.
Staff spent 1,256 hours on complaints over the year, about 170 working days. Bins took 556.5 of those hours.
Longer complaints written with AI
The report also says several departments have seen “a sudden increase” in complaints that appear to be written or redrafted with artificial intelligence. It lists the signs as excessive length, references to laws that do not apply, and heavy use of headings and bullet points.
The council says it welcomes residents using the tools, especially people who find writing in English hard. But officers must investigate every point raised, so longer complaints take longer to answer.
One case went to the Ombudsman and was upheld
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman made decisions on 22 Hertsmere cases in 2025/26. It sent 12 back because the council’s own process had not finished, and closed nine after first enquiries.
It investigated one in full, and upheld it. The decision concerned a resident waiting for home adaptations under a Disabled Facilities Grant. The Ombudsman found an initial delay by the council in asking the freeholder’s permission, though most of the 12-month wait was down to the freeholder. The council apologised.
The report says the council awards more than 100 of these grants in a typical year, from a budget of just under £1 million, and this was the first time the process had been found at fault.
The Ombudsman itself reports complaints rising nationally. The council quotes its latest annual review, which recorded a 33% increase in complaints received.
What it means for you
- A missed bin is usually faster as a report than a complaint. The council says many bin complaints end up handled as service requests anyway. Check your day first on our Borehamwood bin collection days page.
- Complaints now have two stages, not three. Since April 2025, stage one has a 15 working day target and stage two, the final stage, has 25.
- The Ombudsman comes after that. It will usually send a complaint back if the council’s own process has not finished, and it can reject anything you have known about for more than 12 months.
- Keep it short and specific. Nothing in the report penalises long complaints, but it is plain that they take longer to answer.
Our earlier story on what Hertsmere’s households put in their bins covers the county study that went to the same meeting.
Sources: Complaints handling review 2025-26, report OR/26/18; Appendix A, complaint data; Hertsmere Vision performance update, Q1 2026/27; LGSCO decision 25 003 840.
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