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Rats close kids'
play area
North Somerset Times

A CHILDREN'S play area in Nailsea has been closed until further notice in a bid to rid it of rats.

Two months ago, 12-year-old Joe Pratt, of Beech Drive, told the North Somerset Times he was concerned about rats scampering around the children's play area in Scotch Horn Park.

Two months later, David Lear, a special needs teacher from Yorkshire, took his seven-year-old son, Henry, and 10-year-old daughter, Ellie, to play there.

The 45-year-old said: "When we were in the children's play area, there were half a dozen rats, happily roaming around from bin to bin looking for food, then diving into the bedding plants to take refuge.

"The park encourages children to take off their socks and shoes and dive into the sand, when they risk getting bitten by, or catching a disease from, a rat. When we visit my mother in Nailsea, I'd like somewhere safe for my children to play."

Now, two months after the schoolboy drew attention to the problem, North Somerset Council, which owns Scotch Horn Park, has closed the children's play area until further notice.

A spokesman for North Somerset Council said: "We have received complaints regarding rat activity in and around the play park at Millennium Green and are taking them very seriously.

"We have started an intensive baiting programme to bring the situation under control which means the play park will be closed to the public until further notice.

"There may be an increase in sightings as the rats are attracted to the site to take the bait.

"Regular visits will be made to the park to ensure that the bait stations are fully stocked over the course of next week.

"A survey of the surrounding area was carried out yesterday, and although signs of rat activity were observed, no nesting sites were found. We would urge people who may know where they are, to call us on 01275 884162.

"Officers have met with adjoining landowners to discuss measures which they can take to help to control the situation.

"We have also started a phased mailshot to local residents, reminding them of the free service the council offers to deal with rats at domestic properties."

Disease spread by rats is likely to become an increasing problem as the developing world becomes ever more urbanised, experts have warned.
Every day nearly four million rats are born world-wise - ten for every human.

They are known to carry nearly 70 diseases, but it is suspected actually harbour a lot more.
A meeting of experts in Canberra, Australia, heard on Monday that the rodents pose a growing threat to public health.

Dr Lyn Hinds, of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, told the conference: "Rats are a reservoir of disease, the sleeping giants of disease in the world.

"It is more likely than ever that we will have greater levels of debilitating diseases caused by rats with the increased density of human populations."

Among the diseases that rats are known to carry are cholera, typhus, bubonic plague and leptospirosis, a bacterial illness spread by their urine contaminating water or food.

Dr Hinds said 6,000 cases of leptospirosis were diagnosed in Thailand alone in 2000, killing 350 people.

However, researchers say many more deaths should have been attributed to rats but were classified as unknown fever.

The same disease killed nearly 60 people in the Indian state of Kerala last summer.

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