Walker has been named as the rat capital of the North East.
Figures show that there were more sightings of the pesky rodents in the east end suburb of Newcastle than anywhere else across the region last year. Newcastle City Council’s pest control team received 184 rat reports from Walker in 2022, the highest of any area in Tyneside, Wearside, Northumberland and Durham.
Another district of Newcastle had the second largest figure, with 168 vermin sightings in the west end ward of Benwell and Scotswood, while Sunderland’s Sandhill was third with 130. Sunderland ranked worst overall for the total number of rat incidents – with its tally of 2,424 being noticeably higher than the other six council areas who responded to freedom of information requests from the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
