THE banks of the little stream passing through the New Mills estate have been tidied up by Herefordshire Council, following fears that the undergrowth might be harbouring rats.

The news has been welcomed by the Ledbury West ward county councillor, Andrew Warmingham, who raised concerns during the summer over rat infestations at nearby properties.

Speaking at last week's full town council meeting in the Market house, Cllr Warmington said: "I am pleased to report there has been a major clean of along the stretch of the stream from near Tesco to the by-pass.

"While the time will probably never come when rats are far away, it is to be hoped that this will mitigate the issue for now."

But Cllr Warmington also revealed that discussions had been held about giving the town council the responsibility of baiting local sewers.

At present, the responsibility lies with Herefordshire Council.

He said of the possible hand-over: "This might be something to consider if vermin problems in areas of the town recur or continue."

Cllr Warmington said that funding might be available from the county council's purse for sewer baiting operations carried out by the town council.

He said: "They simply cannot devolve responsibility without funding."

The tidy-up is something of of the U-turn for Herefordshire Council which, in the summer, was advocating baiting as the best solution.

A spokesman at the time said: "These streams are a haven for wildlife and act as corridors of biodiversity in the townscape. We therefore normally promote such habitats and would not condone them being cut back. Maintenance of the watercourse doesn’t currently fall within our annual plan of work but we would review any reactive requests on a needs basis.

"Environmental Health have checked the land and it does not fall into the category of ‘land providing shelter, food or harbourage for rats or mice’ – therefore we have no statutory duty nor mandate to act upon this."

The spokesman added: "Rats are not uncommon in any of our market towns and will feed off compost bins, bird tables or chicken feed somewhere in the area and use a stream or small watercourse to run along to where ever they are currently nesting. Cutting back the undergrowth won’t rid the area of rats, it will just change where they run. The best course of action would therefore be to identify and remove their food source, and to bait them."