Its a rat trap NBC and you've been caught

Following yesterdays post on NBC,s astonishing dereliction of duty in respect of local pest control I looked deeper into what was and was not agreed by the Council when it set its budget in February 2009.

In appendix 7 of the budget report which identified cuts (sorry, service reductions) it identifies the following £10,000 saving "Introduce full pest control charges except for rat treatment. Subsidised fees for those in receipt of benefits will stop for treatment of mice and insects"

So we voted for a service, albeit with some charges? and my constituent with a rat infestation irrespective of him being on benefit should have recieved a free service, right?

Well wrong according to the Council, you see another saving was identified below the above which read as follows "saving £29,980 - cease pest control provision by direct contract when current contract ends in 2009/10 - additional savings to above"

Which means what exactly? Cease provision by direct contract? does that mean we will provide by non direct contract? which means what?

And when you look at the list of agreed charges for 2009/10 also set in the budget and voted on by Councillors in February it lists all the various charges for pest control including "Rats - Free" and tell us that "Prices for 2009/10 are "subject to tender July 2010."

Any sensible person would suggest that all the above means that we may go out to tender and the service may not be directly provided in the future. But not that the service is to be scrapped altogether and that residents will simply be told to use the yellow pages!

This is dishonest budgeting and it is disreputable for the council to scrap the service without proper authority by Council or proper explanation to councillors.

Someone therefore has some explaining to do.

One bit of good news though. I spoke to Ray Weaver, Managing Director of Pest Express in Corby who up until July was the Councils contractor, to ask him what he would charge me to pay my constituent a visit to help him. (I don't make a habit of doing this, but it did seem a good use of my council expenses) Ray said, he would do it for free for me. So 5 stars to them (there phone number if you ever need them is 0800 542 67271)

Pest Express offer a service to a number of local authorities and are a "preferred supplier" to many others including North Norfolk District Council who had also closed their in house service, and they offer discounts to benefit recipients.

I still hold out that rat infestations should be treated for free by the council in order to prevent a wider habitation, and I will fight for the service to be reinstated, But why can't NBC at least give a direction to people when they phone them up instead of effectively saying "phone around a dozen companies yourself until you find a company willing to give you a reduction?" phoning around is not cheap either when you are on benefits.

So top marks to Pest Express, and no marks at all for NBC, and a huge row brewing as to what exactly we did vote for in full council at the budget meeting in February.

But one resident in Semilong at least can hopefully get a bit more sleep knowing his house will eventually be rat free.