NORTH Ayrshire Council have spent over £20,000 on pest control at local schools in the last five years.

And with over 500 call-outs across the area, West of Scotland MSP, Jackson Carlaw, has said the findings show ‘a disturbing need for pest control’.

The figures were obtained via a Freedom of Information request by the Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party but when you look further into the costs and call-outs, there are some alarming results.

Since 2009, almost every school in the Three Towns, the Garnock Valley, Kilwinning and Arran has had pest controllers out dealing with rats, mice, ants, wasps and fleas within the educational establishments.

Garnock Academy comes top of the pile for the area with £1,551.72 being spent on 35 separate incidents including rats and mice having to be tackled no less than eight times in just five years.

Of the 43 schools covered in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald circulation area, only four never had to make the call in regards to pests and interestingly, three of these have been built in the last 10 years. Stanley Primary, St Matthews Academy and Arran High School along with Lamlash Primary, which was built in 1981, are the only local schools not to have issues with vermin.

Of the rest of the schools, all total costs equal a mammoth £22,670.72 with only one school, Glengarnock Primary, spending less than £100 in that five year period.

Unsurprisingly, secondary schools are at the top end of the bill with Ardrossan Academy, Auchenharvie Academy and Kilwinning Academy all coming in with totals of more than £600 each with the latter surpassing the £1,000 mark.

The highest spending primary school has been Moorpark who have called upon the services of the pest control 18 times, resulting in a total cost of £766.58.

Carlaw said: “Every child has the right to attend school in an environment that is clean and safe. It is the responsibility of local education chiefs to maintain acceptable standards of cleanliness, but with over five hundred calls to pest control companies in the last five years, it appears that these standards are not being met.

“Families must be secure in the knowledge that they are sending their children to a place where they are not exposed to potential harm. North Ayrshire Council must act now to ensure that the need for these emergency call outs ends as soon as possible”.