Bolton Council to reintroduce free rodent control service

This comes after Bolton Council’s latest budget was agreed this week, setting new tax and spending rates over the next year.

Despite cuts having been made across other departments, the authority has now decided to reintroduce its free rodent control service all across the borough.

Council leader Cllr Nick Peel said: “When the last council administration brought in charges on  the services, the sums of money made were actually quite small.

“The problem was that income just dried up, people just seemed to have stopped using the council as the preferred provider.”

Rats spotted on Queens Park (Image: Sarah Louise Campbell))

He added: “We ended up with a rat epidemic on the streets of Bolton and so we pledged at the last election that we would reverse that charging decision.”

Charging for council rodent control call outs was first introduced in 2021, with costs for a treatment and follow up visit to deal with rats or mice currently standing at £46.

Daily visits to deal with squirrels can cost up to £162.

But problems with rats and other rodents have often been reported all over the borough in recent months and years.

Last May, figures collected by Direct Line Home Insurance found that rat infestations had shot up since charges were introduced.

They found that call outs to deal with rat problems in Bolton rose from 569 in 2021 to 1,238 a year later.

The same research found that councils all over the UK dealt with 225,430 rodent infestations in 2022, the equivalent of 618 per day.

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As well as proving disturbing for families, experts say that rodents like rats and mice can also cause structural damage to homes by gnawing through walls and ceilings.

This can potentially be dangerous if they chew through electric wires or plastic pipes.

Cllr Peel said: “We’re bringing back this free service in the new financial year in April but its also really important that as well as that, people educate themselves in terms of prevention of pests.”

The new free rodent control service is set to be available online from the April 2024.