A woman who lives with her disabled young son in Bermondsey said she was told by council officers that she would have to wait more than a month for them to get rid of a rat in her flat.
Brandi Amiss-Towler, who lives in St Vincent House near Spa Gardens, said she was sitting in her son’s bedroom in late April “and saw a huge rat walk across the floor”. She thinks the rat was flushed up by building work outside as she had never previously had a problem.
Amiss-Towler called the council and asked them to deal with the rat, but was told there were no appointments until June. She is a leaseholder but said her neighbours on either side are council tenants.
Her son has had a tracheotomy after a tumour was found in his throat, which makes him vulnerable to infection. “I explained that my son is disabled,” she added. “He’s afraid of the rat, he can’t play on the floor. The rat is most likely carrying diseases.”
Amiss-Towler eventually took matters into her own hands and got rid of the rat with traps. But this took ten days, she said. “Even the presence of the cat was not a deterrent for the rat,” she added. “ It was eating the cat food.”
Cllr Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads said: “We have been working hard to tackle rat and vermin infestations during the pandemic, addressing emergency works such as the rats described at St Vincent House. The restoration of the full reactive service for problems of this nature has now returned, and is available for all council tenants free of charge.