Both sides of a rat’s tale

6:19am Wednesday 3rd October 2007

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When District Judge Brian Loosley told Dr Frances Kennett that he sympathised with her after she withheld one month's council tax due to a rat infestation, the story attracted headlines across the country.

And it focused attention on Oxford City Council's decision to switch to a fortnightly waste collection last October.

The jury is still out on whether the fortnightly collection has led to an increase in the number of infestations.

Here, Dr Kennett and Jean Fooks, executive member for a cleaner city, give their sides of the story.

DR KENNETT: I live in Jericho, Oxford, a small area of two-up two-down terraced houses. I sold up a large family home in London to live more simply and go back to studying here, when my family had all grown up and gone.

"I've had rats in my house for nine months now and I'm fighting the city council over their failure to stop my neighbourhood turning into a pest-infested and unhygienic nightmare.

"It all started last autumn, when the council announcing it was rolling out a fortnightly household waste collection system in my area. I called the council to say that it wasn't possible for my kind of house to have a wheelie bin, because we all have to take the bags through our living rooms. I was told we could go on having bags instead.

"I was glad the council was being flexible. But when the day came, all the streets were just blocked with bins on the pavements, left out all the time, and soon overflowing with stinking supermarket bags, half torn apart and spilling.

"I insisted on keeping just to the city's charming lilac-eyesore plastic bags, and continued to store them in a large wooden box that I've painted up a nice shade of leaf-green. It fits neatly into a small corner of my back garden. So I'm not sitting in a tiny area with a larger plastic wheelie bin bang next to my chair.

"The Jericho scene after Christmas did it for me. Rotting poultry bones, piles of nappies, bags full of cardboard and wrapping paper stood around for days. No one remembered or even cared what the collection day was. The new system hadn't sunk in! I had seen a notice from someone hoping to campaign against the system, so I rang up, and said something had to be done. But as usual, I got caught up in work and other things, and didn't follow through.

"Three months later, I was working in my little office upstairs and heard scratching and scrabbling in the wall above my head. I've never had rats in my life - and I've been lucky to run homes in many cities both here, in the USA and other foreign parts.

"I thought the noise was birds, but I was kidding myself! A neighbour heard them too, and then the truth dawned - three of our joined terraced houses had rats running through them, in the loft spaces, in the walls, and through the roofs.

"I called out the rodent officer from the council, and to my horror, he found a rat jammed up under a gutter in the back extension - it looked like it was too fat to get in and squashed itself to death.

"Honestly, I gagged, and almost cried when I saw that filthy animal. The poor council officer was very embarrassed and left me snivelling in my kitchen.

"I felt like there was a disgusting intrusion in my home. I felt as if I was out of control in the way I choose to live. I am not exaggerating - I had a Welsh mother, with all that cleanliness is next to Godliness' attitude, and it's stayed with me - well, the cleanliness at least!

"The noise doesn't make my skin crawl - it just makes me completely furious with an impractical system and incompetent council that has brought this problem into my private space. Of course, they say they have to do it, because of the EC and Government diktats. Not their responsibility, then.

"Tony the rodent officer visits me and my neighbours regularly - we are quite friendly in spite of my pathetic behaviour on the first visit. He's done all he can, but the rats are still with us. Of course they are - they're getting fat on food rubbish left in people's back gardens, and from fly-tippers who dump their stuff in street litter bins all round my area.

"Here I am, nine months later, and I still have rats - as do my two neighbours. The council says it has nothing to do with fortnightly waste collections, since Oxford's always had rats. In which case why introduce a sloppy, unhygienic system which is bound to make the problem worse? So I was summonsed by the council for council tax arrears - but the council has blighted my house and my neighbourhood, and I insist on having the Revaluation Tribunal reduce my rating band.

"I am appealing to the council's Ombudsman for the city's failure to provide me with basic practical services.

"A recent Government Select Committee report stated that the fortnightly system had been rolled out by many councils in a rigid fashion, and that fortnightly collections were not suitable for certain areas, such as inner cities and places of multi-occupancy. That's Jericho: one-third student lets, one-third council-owned houses and one-third owner-occupiers.

"I am not participating in this foul system. I definitely support recycling - I take everything I can to the dumps myself - as often as I need - and I compost everything else on my allotment.

"This is not just a rant from a fussy woman! We have young couples in tiny flats protesting; we have families up in arms about rats in their school playground and we have tenants in tiny single rooms who have to put their bags outside on the street all the time, because they have no practical alternative. Another woman I know cannot open her kitchen French windows because the rats in her garden might come in.

"Did you know that weekly collections ought to be the minimum, because flies lay eggs which breed after seven days - filling bins and bags with maggots!

"No one, but no one, is going to make me live at a level of hygiene that is below my personal standards, in my own freehold property. Are you listening, Oxford councillors? I'm not going away until you do - but once this infestation has been sorted, I will stop paying your council tax altogether - I will move out of Jericho."

JEAN FOOKS: "Before considering Dr Kennett's case, we should recall why Oxford's refuse and recycling collection service was changed in 2006/7.

"Oxford had a low recycling rate compared to its neighbours and was sending more to landfill than necessary. Landfill is bad for the environment and the Government is increasing charges substantially year on year, as well as setting local authorities tough targets with fines to be imposed of £150 per tonne for exceeding them.

"The then Labour administration announced in October 2005 that the city should change to an alternate weekly collection system, with different materials collected each week and much more recyclable material collected from the kerbside. The original plan was to give everyone a wheelie bin, regardless of the type of property.

"After consultation with the public, it was decided to provide a limited number of special bags instead to those properties that could not cope with a wheelie bin. We offered to provide a bin as well if people wanted one to keep the bags in until collection day, as secure storage reduces possible nuisance.

"The advantages of wheelie bins are several. They contain the waste securely, virtually eliminating the risk of attack by dogs, cats, foxes or rats. They are much better for the operatives, much reducing the risk of strains to back and shoulders from lifting heavy bags or injury from sharp objects in the bags. They are easier for householders to move to the collection point.

"Dr Kennett was changed to the new system at the end of November 2006 and reported a rat in her house in January 2007. Council pest control officers investigated and put down rat bait. After several calls, officers found that there is a damaged drain under Dr Kennett's property, which is likely to be the source of any rats in the area. Thames Water has been investigating and the responsibility for repair has not been established; however, it must be repaired and the council is pressing for this to be done urgently.

"Changing waste collection requires changes to all of our practices - householders separate the different materials and the council needs new vehicles and provides appropriate bins and boxes.

"Oxford's residents have responded magnificently - that dismal 19 per cent recycling rate of March 2006 has been replaced by a very impressive 40 per cent in June 2007.

"The slight drop in July and August is largely due to a big increase in landfill waste following flood damage. As much as 20,000 tonnes of waste has been diverted from landfill since the new scheme started.

"The extra collections cost money; we have taken on seven extra round operatives as well as buying new vehicles, bins and boxes. If we were to introduce an extra landfill collection in the recycling' weeks, that would cost us about £750,000 a year in vehicles and crew which we simply do not have. There is also evidence that limiting the landfill waste capacity makes people think more about what they are throwing away, and to reduce this by recycling more.

"Not everyone adapted to the new system straight away; we decided to inform and educate before moving to warnings and enforcement by fines. We started issuing formal warnings in the spring to those householders persistently putting out excess waste or putting it out on the wrong day; despite over 3,000 warning letters we have only had to issue 21 fines for non-compliance.

"We used to get complaints about black bags on the streets, split and oozing; this is now a much rarer occurrence and we are getting tough on offenders.

"Judge Loosley was right to insist that Dr Kennett paid her council tax. However, I am surprised, given the facts, at his suggestion that the change to our collection systems was responsible for her problem.

"As the portfolio holder I am doing my best to get the new system working as well as possible, with the council offering advice where wanted on how to make it work. I do not have access to funds to increase our collections of landfill waste."