November 22, 2010 8.23 pm This story is over 160 months old

Council exterminates pest control service

Scrapped: The City Council agreed to stop its pest control service, after reduced demand and expected losses.

The City of Lincoln Council decided at an Executive meeting on November 22 to scrap its loss-making pest control service.

A notice will be served to the current contractor, and the service should be closed effectively by the end of this year.

Councillors said that there is already a market available to meet the needs of Lincoln residents for pest control.

As previously reported, the pest control service from the City of Lincoln Council expects losses of up to £16,000 by the end of this year.

The service delivers pest control treatments to residential customers only, and does not treat commercial properties or public spaces.

Demand for the pest control service dropped almost 75% on previous years, with just over 200 cases treated from 2009 to 2010.

During the same period, income from the pest control service was £4,523, despite restructuring that saw charges of £40 per case introduced.

The duties of the pest control service will now be taken over by private subcontractors and the council’s Environmental Protection.

However, a council report claims that the Environmental Protection team does not have the capacity to absorb additional work from the scrapped service.

The report also predicted more loses if the council would have kept the pest control service on for another year, therefore costing more to run.