Merton Council has admitted to footing the bill for extra resources so that bin collectors Veolia can perform up to the required level.

Documents produced for an upcoming meeting of the sustainable communities overview and scrutiny panel revealed that "on a temporary basis", the council has been paying additional money on top of its agreed contract with the waste company.

"In November 2018 we implemented the ‘no side waste policy’ and only waste which is presented correctly in the correct container is collected," a document read.

"This has benefited local areas through the reduction in street blown litter arising from uncontained waste.

"However, there are locations where volumes of waste generated by households are still significant. In order to address this operationally we have instructed our service provider (Veolia)to clear all waste in these areas and have committed additional resource in the waste collection service on Wednesday and part of Thursday’s collections.

"This is at an additional cost to the Council on a temporary basis."

This news came despite cabinet member for adult social care, health and environment, Councillor Tobin Byers admitting that Veolia's performance hasn't been up to scratch.

“I am pleased to advise that following the service change in October 2018 we commissioned an independent survey to ask our residents about the new recycling and rubbish collection service," he said.

"This level of satisfaction over the last six months has continued to increase and based on their experience now 82 per cent of our residents have expressed satisfaction with the level of service they receive. In addition 84 per cent expressed that they have had no issues regarding the service.

"However I acknowledge the current standard of service delivered is at times below the level expected and is an area of concern for the council, our service provider and our resident which is why working hard to make improvements is a top priority for us."

The angered shadow cabinet member for the environment and Tory councillor Daniel Holden who said the administration had missed a step.

"Not only does Veolia fail to collect all of the waste and refuse, but now the council has had to own up to the fact that taxpayers are footing the bill for a second round of collections," he said.

"Merton Council can no longer hide from its own statistics that shows that street cleaning has become worse since their misguided decision to appoint Veolia."

But Cllr Byers it wasn't about paying Veolia twice.

"We are continuing to collect side waste at limited additional cost in parts of the borough, whilst we work with the residents to implement behaviour change we need to support cleaner streets and improved recycling," he added.

"In parallel we continue to properly enforce the contract and to make deductions where Veolia performance falls below the contract standard.”