A pensioner feared her grandchildren would be bitten by rats while playing in her garden due to a pile of rubbish left uncollected for nine months.

Almost a year’s worth of waste was left to pile up outside Carol Mitchell’s home in Warwick Road, Canterbury, due to a number of issues.

But after inquiries were made by KentOnline, city council contractors visited the eyesore on the Spring Lane Estate on Tuesday to remove the refuse.

The action came after months of calls from Ms Mitchell - along with her neighbour Lynn Kember - who described the frustrating saga as a “disgrace”.

“We’d spent hours and hours on the phone trying to get someone to come and help us but nine months went by before anything happened,” said Ms Mitchell.

“It was disgusting that we had to live like that for so, so long. The council is a disgrace.

“It was just piling up and there was a terrible smell, then there were rats too. We didn’t know if we should let the grandchildren in the garden in case they got bitten by a rat.”

The council attributed delays to the collection to a problem with the door to the rubbish room not opening, which left collectors unable to access the mound.

There were also issues with cross-contamination, which meant the waste could not be recycled.

Ms Mitchell continued: “We kept calling the council every week and they said they’d send someone over, but for months help never came.

“We also reached out to the Mayor of Canterbury and we saw MP Rosie Duffield in person and spoke to her assistant about it.

“It made us feel angry, and eventually I thought enough is enough - I’m going to call the local newspaper about this.”

On Tuesday, council workers went to the scene and were finally able to repair the faulty entryway and remove the build-up of waste.

Council spokesman Rob Davies said: “We apologise to the residents in Warwick Road for some of the recent issues with their waste collections.

"There have been some problems with the door lock and the area has also been prone to flytipping.

“We have now visited the site and cleared the rubbish and flytipped materials and will closely monitor the situation from then on to make sure there are no future concerns.”