UK National Pest Awards - Local Authority of the Year

Nominations for the category of the National Pest Awards'  Local Authority of the Year pest control services: 

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council includes the main towns of Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Tredegar.

The council works alongside Rentokil for the day-to-day baiting of domestic properties in the borough.

In the past two years, the environmental health department has gone from having one qualified pest control technician covering the whole county borough, to having three qualified technicians.

Carl Bartlett, technical officer at Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, said: “The team deals with the investigations looking at how and why rodents are present and, in some cases, gaining entry into the property. This is done firstly by a site visit/inspection of the property/area, where we are checking for food waste, excessive bird feeding, harbourage, refuse and anything else that may attract rodents.

“We also check the drainage systems and test bait where necessary. I take the lead in these investigations, having worked in the pest industry for the last 30 years. Over the last two years, I have been joined by Chris Sage and Mark Cochrane who have now become qualified to Level 2.”

Carl said that his colleagues have grown into their roles. “Splitting the borough into three sections gives us greater flexibility to deal with absence or annual leave.”

Carl said that winning would be a “nice accolade for the department” and a “fantastic achievement for the team”.

Luton Borough Council

Luton Borough Council’s pest control department provides a wide range of pest control services within residential, commercial and public space settings.

David Potter, pest control and dog warden operations manager at Luton Borough Council, has worked in the department for 20 years and has been its manager for 10.

“We employ five fully qualified pest control officers and two trainees from the street cleansing department, who have been escalated under Luton Borough Council’s career pathways scheme,” David said.

“We deliver a fully integrated pest control service to the 214,000 residents of the town, across 19 wards.

"We also service a wide range of commercial contracts across varying sectors which adopt a treatment and sustainable prevention approach.”

David said that his team has successfully delivered an integrated pest management programme to successfully reduce the rodent and pigeon populations across the borough, with a particular focus on the town centre.

David added that the council was recently approached by a neighbouring local authority. “In the last past year, we’ve started working in partnership with Milton Keynes Council, helping it tackle rodent issues in public places, sharing our experience of implementing IPM programmes, with a focus on following CRRU best practice,” David said.

“We also offer pest advice to two other local authorities.”

David said he is “absolutely over the moon” to be recognised as a finalist at the National Pest Awards.