Littering and fly-tipping in a park has led to an infestation of ‘rats the size of rabbits’.

Resident Dipaque Bhatt urged Harrow Council to eradicate the pests at West Harrow Park on September 28 but was told there is currently ‘no plan’ to tackle the problem..

He called on councillors to work alongside Affinity Water to bait the drains in order to eradicate them.

Dipaque said: “We have a lot of rats in West Harrow and the council has been very slow in issuing fines for people littering from vehicles but also more recently there’s been a lot of fly-tipping in the park and the council hasn’t cleared up that mess. It’s rat harbourage terrain.”

He added: “We haven’t got small rats, we’ve got rats the size of rabbits running round the park, which is a health concern not only for myself but for all residents within the borough.”

Dipaque says he is “at a loss” about what to do, claiming no action was taken when he previously raised the problem with the council.

He accused the local authority of taking no action over a fly-tipping report he made more than a year ago, despite taking a council officer to the site who identified it as a “rat harbouring area”. He asked the council whether there was any plan in place to address the apparent infestation.

Cllr Anjana Patel, who is responsible for highways, infrastructure and community safety, advised that when there is a vermin issue on council-owned locations, such as parks and properties, the issue should be reported on its website but suggested the council can “never get rid of rats entirely”.

Cllr Patel said: “To be honest, as far as the park is concerned, there’s no way we can get rid of the rats. We’ve got many parks and many open spaces, there is definitely not enough funding to do this kind of work.”

She added: “Where we have a responsibility we are acting, and we are acting very promptly but as far as getting rid of rats I haven’t seen any borough actually having any kind of [success]. You are complaining about rats, other people will be complaining about other things. […] Frustratingly, we can never entirely get rid of rats and it is not unusual to see them close to rail lines or water courses.

“As far as I’m concerned, we are doing what we need to be doing and there is no plan to get rid of rats from the parks.  […] We are working very hard. […] If there is fly-tipping lying around for a long time that is an issue which I will definitely look into because that should never be there."