Methil resident's rat hell

Euphemia Campbell lives on Wellesley Road, close to the Caspian takeaway, and said the problem is so bad, she has not slept in her own bed for weeks and has been prescribed anti-depressants because of the scratching noises.

“It’s horrendous,” she said. “My stress levels are through the roof because I can hear them through my walls and under the floor boards.”

She explained that as well as people dumping their rubbish or throwing it over the adjoining wall, the property next door to hers is vacant with a damaged door, with the rats running around the streets and into the flat as they please.

Mrs Campbell said Fife Council had been very helpful in their efforts to get rid of the creatures in and around her flat, but until something was done about the bins and the flat, the problem would only get worse.

She claimed the owner of the flat had not done anything about the problem, which has been on-going for four months. Attempts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful.

She has been in touch with local councillor John O’Brien, who is calling on the local authority to clean the mess up and devise a plan to stop people from dumping their rubbish.

“I’ve had a look myself and there’s over 100 bags which have been thrown over the wall. The smell is disgusting.

“This has been going on for far too long – I spoke to the council about it over a year ago and nothing has been done.

“The bins are only emptied every two or three weeks and they are overflowing.

“So lazy people are simply dumping the bags because they can’t be bothered to go else where.

“The council needs to do something, whether that’s more frequent uplifts or a fence on the wall to stop people chucking their bags of rubbish.”

Dave Paterson, area services manager for Levenmouth, explained that initial checks into who owns the land have not yet yeilded any information, and this would need to be covered should Fife Council want to take over ownership of the land under a possible Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) in order to maintain the ground.

On the possibility of increasing the bin uplifts, he added: “We have raised the issue of waste disposal at this site with the relevant service and will explore whether this can be improved.

“In the meantime if we can get permission from the land owner, we will look to remove the rubbish as part of a clear up approach.”