COUNCIL staff have moved swiftly to get rid of rats seen around a landmark town centre gardens in Harrogate.

Rats were spotted at the Montpellier Gardens, which helped the town win the European in Bloom award two years ago.

The rodents were first spotted in the Pier Head area, which overlooks the gardens, by a member of the parks department.

Staff from the environmental health department were alerted and put down bait to kill the rats.

Patrick Kilburn, Harrogate Borough Council's head of parks, said only a small number of rats had been seen, but officers were monitoring the area to ensure the action had been effective.

One report suggested that the rats might have settled in the underground toilets beneath the Pier Head, which were closed almost 30 years ago and sealed off.

But Mr Kilburn said it was not known where they had come from.

Meanwhile, council staff are thinning out overgrown shrubs around the Pier Head, where passers-by have thrown discarded food into the bushes, in an attempt to clean up the area.

One theory is that the rats could have been tempted to the area by food waste.

The incident comes only days after environmental health chiefs at Ryedale District Council issued an urgent warning to householders following soaring complaints about rats getting into properties and nesting.

Calls to the council have increased by 25 per cent and there is no sign of a slow-down.

Residents have been asked to cut back climbing plants to below gutter level to avoid the rodents entering homes in the Ryedale area.