High Peak pensioner's nightmare as home plagued by rats

Pat lives in sheltered accomadation and says her home is invested with rats

Pat Bingham says the problem has persisted throughout the seven years she has lived in sheltered accommodation on Park Road in Whaley Bridge, which is run by High Peak Borough Council.

The 70-year-old is demanding the council takes urgent action to resolve the problem.

Pat said: “My bed is under the loft hatch and I can hear them all up there, and it gets so loud that I’m frightened to go to sleep in case they come through. I can’t live like this anymore.”

Pat said the Environmental Health team had been “brilliant”, along with the various companies over the years which have been out to lay bait.

She said: “If a rat has babies, six weeks later the babies are able to breed, so rather than putting bait down I just want them to stop coming into my house for good - find where they came from, block it up and give me my life back.”

Pat’s neighbour, who is currently nursing her sick husband, has been in the sheltered accommodation for 11 years and says there has always been a problem with rats, but when Pat first moved in she was a little sceptical.

“With a new house you are not sure of noises and at first I thought it was next door,but I soon found it wasn’t,” she explained.

“I can hear them eating the walls - they have even eaten through a concrete wall - and once one got stuck in my drain pipe.

“It makes you paranoid, you start looking for them all the time, and the stench is disgusting. You are constantly on edge.”

Pat says he health has deteriorated and her mobility is limited. She added: “Our sheltered houses share drains with others up the street so it might not just be us that are affected, but for me and my neighbours it has gone on too long now and we are at our wit’s end.”

A spokesperson for High Peak Borough Council said: “We are aware of this situation and we’re making every effort to try and identify and block the points of access, alongside the ongoing treatment that is in place at the properties.

“We understand the concerns of residents and will continue to work with them to address this issue.”