A petition has been set up by a Merton mum to try and stop rubbish dumping and fly tipping.

And it's gathering pace with more than 600 signatures collected in a week.

Hannah Brooking, of Wimbledon Park, who set up the petition on change.org, said: "I apologise frequently to visiting friends for the litter. The most overheard line from parents on our short walk to school each day is ‘mind the poo!’ and even my six-year-old has started asking why there is so much rubbish lying around.

“The final straw for me was last week when I saw a few plastic bottles fail to make the transfer from a neighbour’s recycling box into the recycling collector’s wheelie bin. The collector looked at them and carried on walking, so I picked them up and said shall I get those for you?

"We’ve had 500 signatures in less than 72 hours, so I’m clearly not the only one upset about the state of our streets in Merton.

"So many people are wondering why their council tax payments aren’t going towards basic level public services like effective waste collections and street cleaning."

Over the last month, disgruntled residents have also been uploading their pictures to Twitter with the hashtag #MuckyMerton, and they have also been tweeting the pictures to Merton Council as well as Veolia UK, the private company which collects rubbish on its behalf.

The images include overflowing public rubbish bins, fly-tipped rubbish and litter left on main roads.

Merton Council cabinet member responsible for street cleanliness, Councillor Ross Garrod, said: “We spend over £5 million, every year clearing up after the small minority of people who drop their litter and dump their rubbish on our streets and we fine fly-tippers the maximum £400 the law allows.

“ Our street cleaning is based on need rather than done to a timetable, which is a more effective way of keeping the borough’s road clean. Town centres are inevitably busier than residential streets, so we ensure they are cleaned every day. Also, at this time of year, our contractor employs extra staff to clear the leaves.”