A number of people have been caught out by changes to waste collection dates over the festive period in Merton - leaving them with a small mountain of uncollected bin bags.

Bin collection services until January 3 were altered by the council, with many collection services for recycling, rubbish and food waste, taking place a day earlier than usual - changes it publicised in November.

But Councillor David Dean, who represents Dundonald ward in Wimbledon, said councillors have received "hundreds" of complaints from residents about the "unannounced" service changes.

He said: "The council didn't even bother to tell councillors that collection dates were being changed.

"The outcome is that there is rubbish strewn across some streets and many households had full bins in the very week that they will have the maximum rubbish emanating from their homes due to Christmas."

Merton Council advertised the revised dates in its magazine My Merton, which is sent to every household in the borough.

The service alterations were also advertised in two issues on the Wimbledon Guardian and on the Wimbledon Guardian website.

A council spokeswoman added: "We posted the changes on our website with a link to them from our homepage and published the changes via social media.

"However, we apologise to those residents who have been inconvenienced and will certainly review communications around changes to waste collections for next year."

To see the revised dates, visit the Merton Council website.