A charity-run farm was forced to pay out £750 to get rid of rubbish after Merton's new contractor failed to collect waste for a month.

Deen City Farm, in Windsor Avenue, were on their third skip by the time a lorry crew came to do a full site removal at midday yesterday, Thursday May 4.

This comes after waste collection across South West London was taken over by Veolia at the beginning of April.

The farm estimates it needs donations of £500,00 a year to be able to operate.

Nick Golson, operations manager at the farm, said: "Our budget is stretched and we can't afford these glitches."

The farm hope to get a refund from Veolia for the costs of the skip, but the waste services company has proven difficult to contact.

Mr Golson said: "A contractor as big as this is hard to get hold of. When we asked about the refund, the people at Veolia said that we will have to go a bit higher."

Waste levels at the farm have been particularly high this week with more families visiting over the Easter holiday. 

The bin-saga gained its own following on social media after the farm kept followers updated with news.

Mr Golson said: "We called the old Merton waste department but they started to not go through. 

"It took a while to find someone at Veolia but when we did, they said they would put us down for a collection.

"When nothing happened we eventually wanted to go public. We didn't want to be nasty so we made it comical to defuse the situation."

Dundonald ward councillor David Dean was alerted to the farm's situation via Twitter.

He said: "As a commercial business they have to pay for their waste collection separately but their weekly waste collection has not been collected for a month.

"I think they should get their money back for the skips - if they haven't fulfilled their contract ,surely there should be some recompense.

"There are lots of kids running around at the farm, as well as animals, so it is important that the waste is treated carefully."

A spokesperson for Veolia said: "We're fully aware of the situation and would like to offer our apologies to Deen City Farm for the inconvenience caused.

"Our crew has visited the site to remove any remaining waste and we are in touch with the owners of Deen City Farm to arrange to meet them in order to resolve this situation.

"We will continue to work with them and seek to ensure that normal service is resumed and that there are no further problems.”