Businesses call for St Helier rat infestation to be fixed

A row of bins used by businesses are set to be removed to prevent a rat infestation in the area

Businesses are concerned about an increasing rat infestation around a row of commercial bins in St Helier.

Businesses have reported seeing "hundreds" of rats in the Snow Hill area, especially after dark.

The Parish of St Helier said it would be temporarily moving the row of bins to try and control the infestation.

Receptionist Nina Jones said it was an ongoing problem and had concerns about how they would dispose of rubbish.

She said: "As we take the bins up in the evening when we finish at five, there was like rats everywhere, all round the bins and on the wall where there's a wall behind it".

She said the rodents regularly move around on the grass opposite where their business is based, with some being found dead during the day time.

"Then obviously the seagulls come down and sort of like eating them, which wasn't very pleasant", she said.

Nina Jones, who works at Snow Hill, said the parish should hire someone to keep the area rodent free and tidy

Ms Jones said she was "concerned" about the bins being moved because "we use them on a daily basis, where else are we gonna put our rubbish?"

The parish had said the bins would be removed on 9 January but they remained in place on 12 January.

'Huge infestation'

Flair Entertainment founder Megan Webster said she had seen "hundreds" of rats when disposing of rubbish in the evenings.

"Whenever we take the bin or parcels or anything up to the large green bins, there's a huge infestation of rats, which are sort of hiding underneath the bins so you don't see them at first.

"As soon as you approach them, about 100 rats climb up all over the bins, down the road and up to the banks," she said.

Ms Webster said moving the bins would be an inconvenience to her business as there are no others provided in the area.

The parish said it would be removing the bins on Monday 9 January, but the bins were still in the area several days later

St Helier Town Manager Connor Burgher said the parish environmental health team believe the creatures are eating what is inside, "so we need to remove the bins in order to deal with the rat problem."

"Hopefully this will just be a temporary measure. We need to remove the bins so we can deal with the problem.

"Hopefully they (the bins) will come back - we will review that and of course take advice from the relevant authorities such as environmental health to make sure we are doing the right thing to keep everyone safe."

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