Sheffield sees surge in rat complaints

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 18th Jan 2008

Over the last few years Sheffield has seen the number of rat complaints double. The number of domestic rat complaints to the Council, revealed in a Council report today, has soared from around 2,500 in 2001/02 to over 5,000 in 2006/07. Local Liberal Democrats have highlighted that the Labour controlled Sheffield City Council is responsible, as they have failed to prevent fly tipping and keep Sheffield's suburbs and estates clean.

The Council report into Sheffield's rat problem has predicted that rat complaints are set to rise even higher this year, to around 6,000 complaints. The report lists 'dumped rubbish, litter and fly-tipping' as one of the primary reasons why complaints have soared.

Lib Dems are calling for the Council to put extra resources into 'bread and butter' issues such as cleaning in local areas. They believe that the huge increase in rat complaints is just one example of the Labour Council losing sight of the day-to-day issues that local people are affected by.

Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for Streetscene, said: -

"This massive increase in the number of domestic rat complaints is a real cause for concern. Not only are rats a risk to public health, but they can damage buildings and cause real distress for residents."

"As the Council report itself points out, the increase in complaints is down to the Labour Councils failure to keep our suburbs and estates clean. Clearly this is unacceptable and we need some action from the Town Hall to sort it out."

"It's about time Labour started to take interest in these sort of bread and butter issues, rather than only concentrate on grand schemes. We are urging the Council to take action now in order to avoid even greater increases in rat problems, which the Council report predicts."