Councillor A Hussain to Deputy Leader/Cabinet Member - Communities

Councils are the first line of support for building self-employed businesses back up after the pandemic. For many self-employed people, the pandemic has been not only a health crisis but also an income crisis. Many freelancers in Wales did not get financial support from government and IPSE research found one in four burned through all their savings.

How is the Bridgend Local Authority investing in our areas’ smallest businesses and what help is there for freelancers?

Councillor T Thomas to the Cabinet Member – Future Generations and Wellbeing

Will the Cabinet Member outline the number of County Borough residents enquiries for pest and rodent control over the last individual five years?

Question

Will the Cabinet Member outline the number of County Borough resident’s enquiries for pest and rodent control over the last individual five years?

Response

The number of pest control requests have increased year on year and for the past five years, these are shown below:

Aside from the above domestic pest control requests, SRS have dealt with the following number of complaints:

Supplementary question by Councillor T Thomas

I deal with a lot of Member Referrals relating to problems with rats and I note from the data given, that since 2017/17 pest control requests associated specifically with rats have increased by 53%. I’m wondering if there is a known reason for this?

Response

Data reflects a year on year increase in calls for pest control issues, however, since the Council have had a new Contractor, such calls have significantly reduced when compared with the previous Contractor from 23 to 14 calls a day (on average).

The new Contractor also has a better Operating Module, whereby they provide a ‘call before they visit service,’ to ensure residents are at home before they visit to attend to the problem. The previous Contractor asked residents to ensure they were home for a period of 3 or 4 days, within which time they would visit un-announced between the hours of 9am to 5pm. Though the service was free, residents rather than staying in could opt to have another private provider to resolve the issue, though they would then have to pay for this. The new provider also had better response rates than the previous provider, ie 48 hours compared to 72 hours, respectively.

Second supplementary question by Councillor G Thomas

Are the services provided by the new Contractor free, as they were with the previous one?

Response

Yes, they are, even though pre-pandemic due to savings required under the MTFS, there was a proposal to introduce charging for Pest Control services. However, BCBC did find savings elsewhere, that resulted in maintaining the service free of charge and as it’s a public health issue then this is a reasonable decision. This was not the case with neighbouring authorities though, as the Vale of Glamorgan service comes with a cost, ie around £100 and similarly, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Neath Port Talbot also charge for Pest Control services.

Third supplementary question by Councillor Ross Penhale-Thomas  

Has the Cabinet Member had any insight where Pest Control problems may be worse in some areas as opposed to others. For example are they worse in private rented accommodation than in the social housing sector and, if so, what further support can be put in place in any identified more problematic ‘hot spot’ locations.

Response

Not everyone actually reports problems they experience in terms of rodent and pest issues/problems, so the data obviously only reflects those householders that do or have. I think some people still think it’s a bit of a stigma, ie for neighbours and others to see Pest Control vehicles outside their property. Looking at some case work, it does confirm that more calls do emanate from residents of Social Housing and it could be because they are sometimes on lower income than in private accommodation and, therefore, look to obtain a service that is free which the Council provides, as opposed to paying a private Contractor to visit their home to resolve the problem. If the Member wishes to know if there are any areas of the County Borough geographically speaking, that are worse than others, then I’d be pleased to research this for him if he contacts me outside of the meeting.