‘The rats are as big as hedgehogs’: Salford residents complain about cost of pest control

Households in Little Hulton say they have seen more rats in the area over recent years.

Deborah Western who lives in Newcombe Drive, first started noticing rats in her back garden in 2019 with some so big she thought they were hedgehogs.

She reported it to Salford Council who sent their pest control team out to the property – at a cost of £45 – and she even paid for rat poison and traps herself.

But she says she will not pay for the council’s subsidised service again.

She said: “I refuse to pay the money for the council to come out anymore.

“I don’t want to sound horrible, but I try to keep my garden tidy. If they go into people’s gardens which aren’t tidy, what can I do?”

For this reason, Little Hulton councillor Rob Sharpe says some residents do not report rat sightings in their back gardens or their neighbours’ properties.

It comes a year after Salford council launched an online system to report rat sightings in public places across the city with the aim of gathering intelligence.

However, Coun Sharpe told a scrutiny committee this week that there is no option to report rat sightings on private land such as neighbours’ properties.

He said: “We seem to be stuck and it seems to be getting worse.

“The only solution is to encourage residents to report the issues, but residents don’t want to report rats in the garden because they don’t see it as their responsibility to pay for the rat traps. They see it as the council’s role.

“And to some extent, it’s not their fault that they’ve got rats in the garden because other properties have left food and stuff like that out.”

Currently, residents can report sightings of rats in public spaces via the Salford council website – but if they see a rat on private property, they’re asked to pay.

Salford council boss John Wooderson explained that the purpose of this online reporting system which launched in May 2020 is for internal data gathering.

However, he encouraged residents to report rat sightings for this reason.

He said: “The first thing we need to do in those situations is try to understand what is causing it. For rats to be out in public, there’s usually a reason for it.

“If it is rats out in public spaces, we will look at that. We will look at the intelligence and we will try to understand what the cause is.

“But ultimately, it is the case that if you’ve got rats on your property – and that does include your garden, your yard and all the rest of it – from a legal point of view it is the occupant who is responsible for that, not the city council.”

What’s being done next?

The council officer agreed to look at creating an option on the online system to report rats seen on private land – even if residents are not willing to pay.

Lead practitioner Julie King told the scrutiny committee that environmental health officers have powers to serve notices on landlords and homeowners.

This means if rubbish in gardens is attracting rats, it can be forcibly removed.

She said: “If you’ve got residents who have accumulations of refuse in the garden or food waste, we can look at it from a statutory nuisance point of view.

“So if they are finding issues with their neighbours that are doing that, please let us know and we can have a look and serve notices to rectify those issues.”

Across Salford there has been a ‘slight increase’ in rat sightings since 2018 – however, council bosses say this is ‘modest’ and within the ‘normal variation’.