Issue - meetings

To determine the future of the Council’s pest control service

Following consideration, the Committee resolved (6 for, 1 against) to:

(1)          Discontinue the service and agree that suitable sign-posting to an authoritative trade body be substituted on the Council’s website.

The Committee received a report to determine the future of the Council’s pest control service.

The Committee considered the following matters:

a)            Number of requests in 2024/25. The Public Protection Manager confirmed that the table at section 2.6 of the report, listing the number of control requests for 2024/25 as 0, was still accurate as at the time of the meeting.

b)            Marketing of the service. In response to a question from a Member, the Public Protection Manager confirmed that the Council’s pest control service was advertised on the Council’s website and the marketing had not changed over the last year.

c)            Statutory pest control responsibilities. Following a question from a Member, the Public Protection Manager explained that the Council’s statutory pest control duties are defined under legislation from 1949, requiring the Council to investigate complaints with respect to, and enforce the control and destruction of, rats on private land.

d)            Low service usage and competition. In response to a question from a Member, the Chair suggested that since the initial inception of the Council’s pest control service, public access to information and to alternative service providers had increased, resulting in a lot of commercial competition that did not exist at the time the service was started.

Following consideration, the Committee resolved (6 for, 1 against) to:

(1)          Discontinue the service and agree that suitable signposting to an authoritative trade body be substituted on the Council’s website.