We must get to grips with rats

IT’S unacceptable, in Scotland’s largest city, that there are places so rife with rats that refuse workers consider them “no-go areas”.

The problems in Glasgow of overflowing bins, widescale flytipping and thriving populations of vermin only seem to be getting worse.

Chris Mitchell of the GMB says politicians locally and at Holyrood have completely failed to get to grips with the situation since it first came to major national attention in 2021.

Glaswegians made more than 5000 calls to pest control for rats and mice last year – while binmen say they’re finding them “everywhere”. This absolutely cannot continue. Rats aren’t just a nuisance and a menace to refuse workers, they also carry disease – making them a serious public health risk.

With rats outnumbering humans in Glasgow by at least two to one, the powers that be should be doing all they can to tackle this blight.

Instead, we get weasel words from the council putting the responsibility on the public to be tidier and saying it’s the same in all cities.

But the evidence suggests it is, in fact, worse in Glasgow. And some say much worse.

That’s on the council. It’s also on the Holyrood politicians who chronically underfunded local services.

And it’s on the Tories at Westminster who got this brutal 14year programme of austerity rolling in the first place.

But handwringing and fingerpointing won’t do – not while we risk turning Glasgow into a ratinfested midden nobody wants to even visit, let alone invest in, live in or raise a family in.

That’s not a future anyone wants. The time to get this sorted is now.