Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Environment, Finance and Governance and the Director of Environment and Community Services submitted a report for the Executive’s consideration. The purpose of the report was to seek approval of the proposed service delivery model and associated subsidised charges for residential pest control.

At Full Council on 23 February 2022, £90,000 was allocated to providing a subsidised residential pest control service in Middlesbrough. That planned to fund additional resources to ensure that current service levels did not drop and that the Council could offer a subsidised chargeable residential service, which was reliable. The income from the service, along with the £90,000 budget allocation, planned to make it self-sustainable based on the number of visits in 2017/18, which was when the Council last provided a residential service.

The proposed charge for residential pest control in Middlesbrough was £15 per visit, regardless of what type of pest was being treated. Whilst some local authorities had a free service for rats and mice inside the home, they still charged up to £40+ per visit for those pests in gardens and other outside areas.

A cost analysis of the Tees Valley local authorities and private businesses had been undertaken, the findings of which were detailed below paragraph 6 of the submitted report.

The £15 per visit proposed in the submitted report would be for any residential pest control visit either inside the home or in the outside boundary of the residential property. Therefore, the overall cost for members of the public would be lower than neighbouring authorities and significantly lower than that of private contractors.

OPTIONS

The option to do nothing was not recommended as the issue had been agreed as a priority at the Full Council budget setting meeting on 23 February 2022, and funding had been allocated to provide the service.

ORDERED

1.      That the proposed service delivery model and associated subsidised charges be approved for residential pest control:

a)     A chargeable residential pest control service be reintroduced as per the staffing proposal.

b)     A subsidised charge for pest control be set at £15 per visit, being comparable with neighbouring local authorities and approximately 50% lower than some external providers.  That would not apply to people who were in properties of social registered landlords.

c)     That payment must be made prior to each visit.

d)     That charges be reviewed in 12 months to assess demand and sustainability of the service.

REASON

A chargeable residential pest control service needed to be reintroduced due to increased demand for the service and the fact that the budget had been allocated via the budget setting process at Full Council on 23 February 2022.

The allocation of the £90,000 budget, which was approved at Full Council on 23 February 2022, allowed the Council to provide a subsidised service with charges set at £15 per visit in order to ensure that the service was deliverable and sustainable.

Payments were required prior to each visit, to reduce the potential of bad debt.