A PLAGUE of rats is making their lives a misery and putting children's health at risk, a group of fed-up residents in Nelson say.

A dead rat was brought into a house in Rowland Avenue and left under a baby's highchair, while in another incident, Christmas decorations were destroyed 25 by gnawing rodents.

Resident Stuart Hale wrote to Pendle MP Gordon Prentice and council chief executive Stephen Barnes, after he went into his loft at Christmas and found rats had eaten the decorations.

"The matter is now becoming intolerable," he said. "My wife and I get very little sleep at night because of the noise of the rats, not only in the cavity walls but also in the attic."

Mary Roberts, who lives opposite, added: "The problem seemed to start last summer. We called the rat catcher and he put down poison and the problem seemed to go away.

"This Christmas it all started up again and it's getting worse. It seems to have started on one side of the street and now they're coming to our side. There are young children living here that are at risk. They could pick one of these things up and be bitten.

"We think it's only affecting these two blocks of four houses, but who knows? Perhaps other people in the street have a problem and aren't saying anything." Mary's neighbour, Fiona Simms, who has two young toddlers, said: "The dog brought a dead rat into the house and left it under the highchair.

"I've got kids crawling around and they tend to pick up stuff and put it in their mouths. It doesn't bear thinking about what could happen if they came across one of these things.

"The older children are frightened: it's traumatising them. They keep talking about these rats and they're afraid in case they come across one."

The residents said they were not satisfied with the way the council is dealing with the matter.

Stuart Arnott, the council's chief environmental health officer, said the authority was aware of the problem and was tackling it. "As well as treating individual houses where rats have been spotted, we are also undertaking a programme to get them at source before they get into the houses as an extra level of protection.

"We are putting poisoned bait down the sewers and our staff are re-visiting the traps to see if they are having an effect. We suspect it's only a small cluster, but understand the residents' concerns and we are taking them

seriously."

Picture shows residents of Rowland Avenue with the dead rat found in a house. Front, from left, Michelle Murphy and Mary Roberts. Back, Karen Riley, Julie Black, Fiona Simms and Jackie Parker.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.