LBC radio web site: Tower Hamlets Tops UK For Rat, Mice & Cockroaches

Retrieved from the LBC London radio web site at appx,  1215 GMT Friday 18 May 2012:

Tower Hamlets Tops UK For Rat, Mice & Cockroaches

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Friday 18th May 2012

Tower Hamlets has come top of a table of a national survey of places infested with rats, mice, cockroaches, bed bugs and other pests.

The borough came top of requests for pest control help, with 82 residents in every 1,000 requesting assistance, more than anywhere else in the UK.

Hackney and Southwark also feature in the top ten areas.

Simon Forrester, chief executive of the BPCA, said: "This is the most comprehensive study of the demand placed on local authorities for pest control ever carried out and it covers a period when the austerity measures were starting to bite.

"The BPCA is concerned that, on a national scale, pest control budgets are being hit.

"That makes it much harder for councils to respond as effectively as they would like, which could have implications for both quality of life and public health.

"Authorities are reducing manpower and looking at new ways of dealing with pests. We would urge councils thinking of outsourcing services to use BPCA members - potential public health problems need to be dealt with by professionals, and failing to tackle an infestation properly leads to additional expense and resident dissatisfaction."

Boroughs With Most Requests For Pest ControlLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets
Newport City Council
Richmondshire District Council
London Borough of Hackney
London Borough of Southwark
Birmingham City Council
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, City of
South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council
North Lanarkshire Council

The BPCA orignally named Wandsworth as the worst borough for pests, but had got their decimal point in the wrong place, claiming 86 complaints per thousand, but the actual figure is 8.6.