Rubbish bags are piled high and skips overflowing as bins at the rear of a shopping centre have not been collected for a month.

Sacks full of litter are stacked higher than a fence in a loading bay at the back of Park Mall in Ashford.

The Edinburgh Road site is shared by businesses in the centre and refuse collectors usually come round every Wednesday.

But Russell Geen, owner of the Little Teapot cafe in Park Mall, says they have not been spotted for four weeks.

"All the rubbish goes out there and it has just not been emptied and I have no idea why," he said.

"We pay for a service which we are not getting.

"I'm not happy because it attracts vermin; it's only going to get bigger and bigger unless something is done."

A member of staff at By the Tank Cafe, which backs onto the loading bay, told KentOnline the smell is causing a problem and the business is “not happy with it”.

A spokesman for Ashford Borough Council, which owns the centre, says it is raising the issue with its contractor and hopes to resolve the matter quickly.