Ratcatchers lack of work after £20 fee introduced
NEW council charges for ratcatching are putting people off using the service.
The £20 fee, introduced last March, is proving unpopular with householders plagued by the unwelcome visitors.
While residents are still reporting rat sightings to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, when talk of payment is raised the complaint is quickly dropped.
The health and safety implications of this has prompted one Liberal Democrat councillor to speak out and call for the fee to be lifted.
At a recent council meeting Bron Witherford (Lib Dem Castle) directed her questions to Cllr Kevin Morrell (Con Twycross, Witherley with Sheepy) the executive member for environmental matters.
She said: “We are now getting a considerable amount of sightings of rats running through and around gardens and properties in the urban area. Residents who have reported this to the council have withdrawn their enquiry when advised that they would incur a cost of £20 to take this further.
“They see no reason why they should pay this amount when the rats were not nesting on their property but migrating from other surrounding sites.
“In the interest of public health in general and as a gesture of this council’s commitment to protecting the health and safety of its residents, I would once again ask if the exec- utive member of this administration with this responsibility will consider withdrawing the charge that has been imposed and cover the costs incurred for this service from an alternative budget.”
Sending out the civic ratcatcher used to be a service offered for free by the borough council. However, squeezed budgets have seen the authority increase charges and also impose new charges for some of the services it used to provide with little or no cost.
Cllr Morrell said reports of rats had been on the increase over the last four years, pre-dating the introduction of charges.
He added: “There will always be natural fluctuations in rodent populations which can be caused by external factors such as the climate. It is very natural to see populations, and as a consequence numbers of service requests, fluctuate over years.
“As long as we are providing a treatment service for those that want to pay and an investigation service into matters relating to rat infestations I feel that we are providing adequate protection to public health.
“I will continue to monitor the situation but at the current time am not minded to reintroduce a free service; something which is very rare for local authorities to provide in today’s financial climate.”
He reminded colleagues if people were able to identify a local source of any infestation a service request could be raised with environmental health and officers would investigate under public health legislation.