A resident who lives near Glasgow’s West End is calling on the council to take urgent action against a rat infestation that’s plaguing the neighbourhood. The vermin outbreak has led to Glasgow City Council being forced to put wheelie bins in parking bays on the road, taking up vital spots for residents.
The affected streets include Dryburgh Gardens and Melrose Gardens. The council said it’s "unsafe" to carry on with normal bin collection services - which usually take place from the bin sheds - due to a "severe" rat infestation.
Diarmid McBride, who has lived on nearby Wilton Street for 11 years, says finding parking spots is difficult enough and is calling on the council to bring in pest control.
READ MORE: Glasgow teachers strike today and parents warned many city schools affected
Residents are concerned that the bins will lie in their streets for months without any action being taken.
Diarmid, 54, told GlasgowLive: “There’s a controlled parking zone introduced within the last six months so parking is already at a premium. When the bins get full, we may get people leaving rubbish beside the bins or on top - it’s a horrendous situation.
“Parking was already horrendous so frequently you would have to circle and circle to try and find a space. Now they have taken several spaces and blocked them off with these huge bins.
“Everybody is just dumping rubbish in these bins which are on the street. People who are not residents and have excess rubbish go and start filling up these bins and then residents don’t have space to put in rubbish - I’m concerned it will spiral out of control.”
He added: “It sounds like this won’t be resolved until the new year and my fear is that this drifts. We’re coming up to Christmas and you can imagine the volume of rubbish going into bins.
“On one side of the road the bins are on the pavement but on the other side it’s in the parking bays. I don’t understand the rationale behind it.
“The rat infestation has to be rectified as a matter of urgency. It’s a significant issue and until that is resolved we are not going to get back to any sort of normality.”
Glasgow City Council said their pest control team has already laid down treatments in the back courts affected by the rat infestation. However, the poor condition of the bin sheds is said to reduce the effectiveness of the pest control treatments.
A council spokesman said: “Due to severe rat infestations in bin sheds at a number of backcourts in this neighbourhood, it is currently unsafe for our staff to undertake routine bin collections at affected addresses.
“To ensure we can continue to collect waste from householders at these addresses, bins have been placed on the street as a temporary measure.
“We are liaising with factors and householders on how best to tackle the condition of the bin sheds. The maintenance of private property such as backcourts is the responsibility of private owners.”
READ NEXT:
St Enoch explosion victims 'screamed in pain' with singed hands and jackets burnt off
Woman claims Airdrie vets poisoned dog after anaesthetic injected into bloodstream
Glasgow firm goes bust after being awarded £10m taxpayer's cash leaving 600 unemployed
Martin Lewis warns employees to check for 'X' on payslip as millions 'overpaying and due thousands'
Glasgow's new Topgolf venue set to open its doors later this month
