Pest control

Our service aims | Our service standards | Our charges | Information on common pests
Contacts | Links to other useful sources of information

The Environmental Health Service provides an inspection, treatment and advice service for City residents, businesses and other City of London departments. The service aims to control and monitor rodent and other pests on land and in buildings.

Historically, most work was carried out within the City boundaries, but increasingly contract work is being undertaken at City of London premises and lands outside such as the Spitalfields Market, Heathrow Animal Reception Centre, Hampstead Heath, and West Ham Park. The service works closely with various City of London Departments dealing with their particular pest problems and routinely monitoring and controlling pest activity on their behalf.

Our service aims

As a pest control service we aim

to provide effective and reliable pest control advice and treatments to residents, businesses and to the City of London including
- our domestic tenants through the Community Services Department in all properties within the City of London and on our outlying Estates
- residents of the Barbican Estate in liaison with the Barbican Estate Management
- all other residents of the City of London
- all City of London business and commercial premises
- other City of London Departments such as the Markets and Open Spaces
- other parts of the Department of the Built Environment such as the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre
- other Environmental Health Service staff in performance of their duties under food and public health legislation
To encourage an integrated approach to the management of pests not just pest control treatments but advice and information on how customers can help themselves to improve situations or prevent pest problems occurring or recurring
To provide a service for flat clearance work and the treatment of ‘filthy and verminous’ premises
To provide assistance to other Environmental Health Service staff involved in clearance of food from commercial food premises
To commit to continuous improvement. To do this we benchmark our service with comparable service providers and make comparisons with other benchmarking groups and performance indicators and standards
This includes membership of the Greater London Pest Control Liaison Group facilitated by the Acheta pest control consultancy
To invest in the training and competency of our staff

However, to avoid any conflict of interests, we can only provide advice to City food businesses and then only in liaison with an Environmental Health Officer from our Food Safety Team but a full advisory and treatment service is available for all other non-food businesses in the City.

Our service standards

We have set certain standards our customers can expect from us and these are:

to respond to requests for advice within one working day
to respond to requests for treatment for rats, mice, cockroaches and other insects within one working day
to respond to requests from our regular contracts within one working day; and
to aim to commence any appropriate treatment within three working days

but please note that there is no regular weekend service provided.

If you experience problem with our service or if you have a suggestion on how we could improve please feel free to contact us either by telephone to 020 7332 3630 or by email publicprotection@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Our charges

There is no charge for our advice over the telephone. If you require a survey of a premises to gauge the level, or likelihood, of pest activity and a written report, then a charge is made for this. The Pest Control officer who visits will discuss the findings of their survey and offer advice on appropriate action. If treatment with pesticides is recommended and you agree to the work being done a charge will be made for this part of the service. Any charges will be fully explained before any work is agreed so it is clear for which service you will be paying.

Written information about the recommended action and any pesticide will also be left with you following any treatment. It is very important that any poison is left undisturbed.

Follow up action will be discussed as will the number of visits thought necessary to remove any problem. To achieve the most realistic chance of success, our recommendations on housekeeping and pest proofing must be actioned otherwise subsequent treatments can easily be compromised.

All charges for one-off treatments (and follow ups) are made on a simple cost-recovery basis and these charges are reviewed annually. Charges are set by the hour and are as follows:

Monday - Friday core hours: £50 per officer hour*
Saturday - Sunday Bank Holidays- night work: £75 per officer hour*.

*Additional charges for materials are made in situations where comprehensive glue-boarding is required or large numbers of bait stations are required and these will be charged at cost.

Regular contracts and activities such as block treatments are subject to negotiation depending on our advice, your needs and requirements and the materials likely to be involved. Please contact us either by telephone to 020 7332 3630 or by email publicprotection@cityoflondon.gov.uk to discuss your requirements further.

Information on common pests

We provide a range of advice leaflets and leaflets from other sources and links to download these are to be found below.

Contacts

For further information or to enquire about pest control treatment, telephone 020 7332 3630 or email publicprotection@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Links to other useful sources of information

We have also included a range of information from additional sources, believing that this can help to improve peoples’ understanding of pest management and to help foster a more consistent approach. Other organisations involved in pest control include:

British Pest Control Association
Royal Society of Health Pest Control Qualification
Killgerm
Direct Gov
DEFRA

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Last modified: 16 November 2011